LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Shelf-fyo.... 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 



AND 



OTHER ESSAYS 



CHIEFLY RELATING TO 



EDUCATION AND CULTURE 



^ ^-'^ 



W. H. VENABLE LL.D. 

Author of "The Teacher's Dream" " Beginnings of Literary Culturi 
IN THE Ohio Valley" "History of the United States" etc. 



BOSTON 
LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 

10 MILK STREET 

1893 



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A 



Copyright, 1892, by Lee and Shepard 



All Rights Reserved 



Let Him First Be A Man 



PREFACE 



It is hoped that this book will encourage teachers, 
especially j/<?;/;/^ teachers, and help that large class 
of self-helpful students who are seeking guidance in 
the broad field of general culture. The author has 
not attempted a formal statement of the science or 
philosophy of education ; many excellent treatises 
on Pedagogy are already at the teacher's hand. 
But there is always room for one more volume of 
educational essays dealing with the common prob- 
lems of teaching and learning, and derived from 
actual experience in school and out of school. One 
may obtain benefit from a new statement of old 
truth, or by comparing his thoughts with those of 
another who has striven, like himself, to answer 
the questions, " What is education ? and Why do we 
educate ? " 

A glance at the contents of the following pages 
shows a considerable variety of topics, but the miscel- 



IV PREFACE 

lany is not without plan. The opening chapters are 
intended to depict the potential man, the ideal being 
which it is the highest purpose of education to per 
feet. On the teacher's conception of the worth and 
dignity of human nature, and equally on the learner's 
self-respect, and reverence for the divine workman- 
ship which makes his body the " quintessence of 
dust," and his soul "the infinite in faculties," — 
on these depend the processes of that nurture and 
training which fit men to live the best and most 
useful life. 

After discussing, in brief, the nature and educa- 
bility of man, and the motive of all education, the 
writer ventures to make a few suggestions concern- 
ing the special function of schools in the vast work 
of general education, and touches slightly upon 
methods of government and instruction, under the 
inclusive heading " Schoolmastery." Then follow 
brief essays on the essential elements of mental and 
moral development, and on the importance of reading 
as a means to superior culture. About a third part 
of the volume is taken up with studies in the history 
of education. 

Many of the articles here printed were addressed 
originally to popular audiences or Teachers' Insti- 
tutes, and might with propriety be called familiar 



PREFACE V 

"Talks," rather than essays. Some of the pieces 
have appeared in "Education," the "Ohio Educa- 
tional Monthly," " Intelligence," and other journals. 
The dominant purpose of the several essays and of 
the collection is to oppose the deadening influence of 
mere mechanical routine in the training of children, 
whether in school or at home. The " Procrustean 
bedstead," the "cramming-machine," the "conser- 
vative groove," still find a place in the generality of 
schoolhouses, and there is still need of abolitionists 
to urge their removal. 

The incentive that led to the making of this book 
is the same that induced the author to compose the 
several sections originally, — the wish to be of some 
service, even the slightest, to the vital cause of pop- 
ular education. The melioration of the children of 
the people is the reform that underlies all other 
reforms. 



CONTENTS 



Page 

I. Let Him first be a Man i 

1. The End and the Means I 

2. The Foundation and the Superstructure .... 6 

3. Cui Bono? 9 

4. Young America at School 12 

5. What is a Man? 15 

II. The Paragon of Animals 18 

III. Functions of the Preparatory School .... 36 

IV. Schoolmastery ." 43 

I. Guide, Shepherd, and Pilot 43 

. 2. What the Schoolmaster masters 44 

3. Teaching and Governing 45 

4. Persuasion and Force 46 

5. Doctor Arnold's Way 49 

6. How not to govern a School $0 

7. The True Story of " Rusty Nails " 52 

8. The Ideal Teacher 53 

V. Nature the Sovereign Schoolmistress .... 61 

VI. Topics of the Time 71 

1. " Experiments of Light " 7^ 

2. Both Sides are Right 74 

3. Disco 77 

4. Natural Ability plus Education 79 

vii 



Vlll CONTENTS 

VI. Topics of the Time {continued). 

Page 

5. The Quick Coal go 

6. Does it Educate? 82 

7. The Beginnings of Education 84 

8. Education and Temperance 85 

9. Universal Education 87 

VII. Books and Reading ^i 

VIII. Unclassified Trifles 105 

1. Stray Thoughts 105 

2. Woman's Rights 112 

3. Past, Present, and Future 112 

4. Progress of Civilization 113 

5. Use of the Ideal . 114 

6. Combinations vs. Individuals . 115 

7. A Collection of Men 115 

8. Education Out of School 116 

9. The Old-Fashioned Elocutionist 118 

10. "It's Books" 123 

11. The Cultured Snob . . -. 127 

12. Natural Science Teaching in the Common Schools . 128 

13. How to say It 131 

IX. Studies in the History of Education .... 135 

1. Confucius 135 

2. Education in Ancient Greece 153 

3. Plato and Education 157 

4. Aristotle and Education 168 

5. Quintilian 179 

6. Goethe as an Educational Light 195 

X. The Utility of the Ideal 213 

XI. Sylvan Mythology, Poetry, and Sentiment . . 235 
XII. William Downs Henkle — Memorial Address . . 246 



" The discipline of Slavery is unknown 
Amongst us, — hence the more do we require 
The discipline of virtue ; order else 
Cannot subsist, nor confidence, nor peace. 
Thus, duties rising out of good possessed, 
And prudent caution needful to avert 
Impending evil, do alike require 
That permanent provision should be made 
For the whole people to be taught and trained. 
So shall licentiousness and black resolve 
Be rooted out, and virtuous habits take 
Their place ; and genuine piety descend, 
Like an inheritance, from age to age. 

Change wide and deep, and silently performed. 
This land shall witness ; and, as days roll on, 
Earth's universal frame shall feel th' effect. 
Even till the smallest habitable rock. 
Beaten by lonely billows, hears the songs 
Of humanized society ; and bloom 
With civil arts, and send their fragrance forth, 
A grateful tribute to all-ruling Heaven. 
From culture, universally bestowed. 
Expect these mighty issues ; from the pains 
And quiet care of unambitious schools 
Instructing simple childhood's ready ear, 
Thence look for these magnificent results ! " 

Wordsworth. The Excursion, Book IX. 



ESSAYS 



I 

LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 

I. THE END AND THE MEANS 

Of many passages that shine like gold in a cabinet 
of less precious ores in Rousseau's celebrated Essay 
on Education, the followins: is one : " According: to 
the order of nature, men being equal, their common 
vocation is the profession of humanity ; and whoever 
is well educated to discharge the duty of a man can- 
"not be badly prepared to fill up any of those offices 
that have a relation to him. It matters little to me 
whether my pupil be designed for the army, the pul- 
pit, or the bar. Nature has destined us to the offices 
of human life antecedent to our destination concern- 
ing society. To live is the profession I would teach 
him. When I have done with him, it is true he will 
be neither a soldier, a lawyer, nor a divine. Let 
HIM FIRST BE A MAN ; he will, on occasion, as soon 
become anything else that a man ought to be as 
any person whatever. Fortune may remove him 



2 ESSAYS 

from one rank to another as she pleases, he will be 
always found in his place." 

The doctrine thus proclaimed by Rousseau had 
been announced centuries before by Plato, who says 
in the sixth book of the Laws that "■ a nurture per- 
fectly correct ought to show itself able to render 
both bodies and souls the most beautiful and best." 
What is such a nurture but adequate preparation for 
the ''profession of humanity".? This comprehen- 
sive view of the purpose of education is always held 
by those who march in the van of civilization. It 
is a general truth to inscribe on the ever-advan- 
cing banner of educational progress. Like the 
gospel of religion, it must be preached anew in 
every age. 

The child is born into the world ignorant, feeble, 
plastic, — a mere lump of organized protoplasm, — 
yet living and endowed with germs of all human 
powers, — a potential man. His education begins 
with his first breath. His parents are his primary 
educators ; they must nurture his body and nour- 
ish his mind. The cradle is the first room in the 
school of life. The Kindergarten of home is the real 
preparatory department. Unless the child's early 
training, and the parents' ideas of the purpose of 
education, be correct, later teachers must work at 
great disadvantage. The father and mother give 
their child his constitution, his health, his habits. 
They call forth and direct the first motions of his 
mind, foster his tastes, set up standards for him, fur- 



LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 3 

nish his surroundings, determine his associations, 
advise him, control him. How important, then, that 
parents adhere to the best-known principles of edu- 
cation in dealing with their children, and in relations 
with those to whom their children are intrusted after 
they leave the nursery for the schoolroom. Right 
systems of education will be adopted by teachers if 
right demands are made by parents. Popular opinion 
determines the character of the schools. The best 
and wisest teacher in the world cannot bring his good- 
ness and wisdom to the proof when the prevailing 
sentiment is against him, or not with him. Superior 
teachers need sympathy in their purposes and aspi- 
rations more than they need co-operation in the 
actual discharge of their duties. 

The vital question is not what books to use, or 
what subjects to teach, or what classes to form, but 
what is the ultimate object of teaching.? What do 
we want to do with or for boys and girls .'' What is 
education } 

''Give our children a practical education " is the 
exhortation of many parents ; and little miss and 
master in the infant grade ''tackle " the schoolma'am 
with, "What good '11 it do us.?" The schoolma'am 
does not easily give little miss and master a satis- 
factory answer to their question. Nor does the 
superintendent find it possible to explain the utility 
of the course of study to the anxious, inquiring 
father, especially if the father be pertinaciously 
practical. 



4 ESSAYS 

What good ? What use ? Ctii bono ? The old 
stumbling-block. 

Suppose we permit the school-boy to erase from 
his schedule of studies all subjects that appear, to 
him useless, how much is left ? The boy cannot 
know what he needs. The chances are he is prej- 
udiced against all studies that tax his pleasure 
and freedom. He obeys the call of his blood, not 
the sedate voices of forethought and wisdom. If 
our extremely practical philosopher advises the lad, 
the advice and argument may be something iike 
this : " Of what advantage is it to study geography.^ 
The ignorant emigrant is carried over the sea as 
safely and swiftly as are Ritter and Guyot with all 
their grand conceptions of continents and seas. 
Tea comes to us from China whether we know 
where China is or not. And what real benefit can 
you get from grammar } So long as you make your 
meaning understood, who cares whether verbs agree 
with their subjects or not, or that there are such 
things as verbs and subjects } Again, why waste 
time in learning the;r-|-j/ of algebra.? Who keeps 
accounts in algebra .? Will reading history provide 
you food, or pay debts, or cure cholera } Why, even 
reading, writing, and arithmetic are of very little 
practical use. You will generally hear the news 
told, and may avoid the trouble and expense of a 
daily paper. Your * mark ' will secure legal rights. 
You may calculate interest and add up sums in your 
head. Common sense is all the education you need. 



LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 5 

My father never went to school a day, and yet he 
became a rich man. Learning spoils a man for 
business." 

Such is the absurd logic, pushed to the extreme, 
of a certain class of self-styled practical men, when 
they talk about education. Nor is our imaginary 
case much overdrawn. There are hundreds of well- 
to-do men and women, of average intelligence, who 
act as if they really esteem education in the abstract 
as a sort of evil, or, at best, an unnecessary good. 
They seek schooling for their children, not from a 
conscious belief that schooling is in itself valuable, 
like money, and land, and office, and respectable 
family connection, but because custom compels them 
to send their boys and girls to school. They seem 
to begrudge the time and money spent in education. 
And, therefore, cheap and rapid transit through 
schools is much in demand. If thorough education 
takes time and labor, let us have a superficial educa- 
tion that looks like the genuine article. Walnut and 
mahogany are expensive, — will not veneer answer 
every practical purpose.? veneer, or even paint, in 
imitation of the true grain ? 

The end of education is, indeed, practical, but the 
means to that end are not simple and easy. The 
making of a child into a complete man is a process 
requiring time, skill, science, and wisdom. The most 
tcsefid knowledge, and the most valuable process of 
education, furnish facilities to ward the boy in his 
progress toward ideal manhood. 



ESSAYS 



2. THE FOUNDATION AND THE SUPERSTRUCTURE. 

The ardor of professional teachers is perpetually 
checked by the popular clamor for easy education, 
simplified education — education that anybody may 
obtain without study and use without skill. The 
call is for a commodity that no man can supply — a 
commodity that does not exist. Education is not 
an article that one may buy at a shop and carry 
away in a basket. The training and storing of the 
mind require a long process. It is a vital, cumulative, 
continuous effort. The results of education — the 
fruits — cannot precede the conditions that produce 
them. First the bud, then the blade, then the ear. 
The applications of power imply — power. Let the 
boy become a man, mentally, before expecting him 
to do a man's mental work. The whole object of the 
teacher should be to train the man ; not the artisan, 
the merchant, the professor. To train the whole 
man — not the hand alone, the head alone, the heart 
alone. 

Nature demands of the faculties disinterested 
activity. She is exacting, and will not pay until 
the work is done. The student shall not know the 
joy of victory until he conquers. He shall not 
overcome the hard problem until he has wrestled 
and strained with it. He shall not express a 
thought clearly before he has conceived it clearly. 
He shall not become a scholar without the proba- 
tion of the student. He shall not be master except 



LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 7 

through the tasks of apprenticeship. He shall not 
be competent to do independent and special duties 
until he has enfranchised his faculties by discipline, 
and learned to distinguish the particular from the 
general. The school catalogues propose to fit boys 
for the duties of life. This is the legitimate work 
of preparatory schools, academies, and colleges. 
They are introductory to life itself, not to stations 
in life — not to vocations. There is necessity of 
commercial schools for mercantile training, law 
schools for lawyers, medical schools for physicians, 
normal schools for teachers, theological schools for 
divines ; but before all there is need of educational 
schools for men and women. The special school is 
supplementary or complementary to the general 
school. Neither is a full substitute for the other, 
though the training for life is the foundation of any 
training for a living. The person who is without 
the developed power that the fundamental training 
of his faculties gives, cannot make good use of the 
opportunities afforded by schools devoted to special 
objects. Every building, be it designed for resi- 
dence or factory, castle or cathedral, requires a firm 
foundation. Solid stone walls first, deep laid and 
level. This lower work is much the same for all 
houses. 

Well-grown wood makes reliable timber, and a 
stick of timber may be turned to various uses ; it 
may be fashioned into a mast, a beam, a piano, a 
pulpit, an exquisite carving. But it must become 



8 ESSAYS 

timber first. Sap-wood cannot be wrought into dur- 
able forms. Time must elaborate the tissues of the 
tree. 

Education in school is the building of basement 
walls — it is the growing of sound timber — it is the 
confirming of tissue, physical, mental, moral. The 
child must be educated because he is a man — to- 
morrow. He must be educated simply because he 
can be educated ; because it is the nature of man to 
improve by culture. As Ruskin epigrammatically 
says, "There is an education which in itself is 
advancement in life." 

This education, though it does not aim to fit men 
for any station, goes far to fit them for all stations. 
But not by special training for particular vocations. 
As John Stuart Mill puts it, "Education makes a 
man a better shoemaker, but not by teaching him to 
make shoes." Is this a hard saying.? Cannot our 
practical philosophers see that education must edu- 
cate before it can claim to have benefited its subjects } 
What is it that teachers, books, schools, studies, 
recitations, examinations, gymnasia, should be ex- 
pected to do for youth } What does education bestow } 

We answer, education gives general increase of 
power — discrimination, versatility, command. It 
gives each faculty habitual exercise of its function. No 
one knows his destiny, — what he maybe required to 
become, do, or endure, — and if he neglects any power 
of body or mind it may be the very power he will 
have greatest need to employ at some important 



LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 9 

crisis. Predominant talents become more effective 
by general training. Though Pascal learns geometry 
by intuition, and Burns sings spontaneously as a bird, 
and Mozart's baby fingers know, untaught, every 
secret of the clavier, it does not follow that education 
is wasted on Pascal, Burns, and Mozart. The fine 
nature is the one most hurt by wrong, and most 
benefited by right culture. The highest achieve- 
ments of genius depend somewhat upon the general 
strength and health of the faculties, as the perfection 
of a flower depends upon the condition of roots, 
branches, leaves, and all the other organs of the 
flowering plant. Wrong culture is ruinous, but right 
culture invariably adds to the gifts of nature. Edu- 
cated genius is indomitable. 

3, GUI BONO .'' 

The more complete and extensive a man's educa- 
tion, the more able is he to accomplish whatever he 
undertakes. If he be naturally well endowed, and 
then thoroughly educated, failure can scarcely surprise 
him. Each part and power of man is educable. The 
educated hand is strong, steady, active, graceful, and 
sensitive. The educated eye is alert, telescopic, 
microscopic, discriminating, capable of many tasks, 
accomplished in many arts. The educated memory 
is comprehensive, unconfused, accurate, retentive, 
quick. The educated reason is ready, logical, tran- 
quil, profound, masterly. The educated affections 
are tender, constant, vigilant to seek and do their 



10 ESSAYS 

office, beautiful, robust. The educated will is decisive, 
prompt, unwavering — immovable in its rest, irresist- 
ible in its god-like motion. An educated man is a 
grand congeries of organs and forces, material and 
spiritual, working together in health and harmony, 
mutually dependent, mutually helpful, — many in 
one, — subordinate only to Him who is Supreme. 
To educate a man is to give his hand, brain, and 
heart their maximum life, power, and facility. '* Know 
thyself " is the theoretical end of education ; — use 
thyself is the practical end. The Orient said kiiow 
and be : the Occident says know, be, and do. 

Practical education ! it is not the knowledge of 
crafts, trades, and professions. It is not that which 
confers skill in the use of this or that instrument ; it 
confers upon man the right understanding and ready 
use of himself. That is a practical education, worthy 
of the name, which enables a person to maintain 
bodily health, strength, and comeliness ; to command 
his own muscles and nerves ; to employ his organs 
of sense with accuracy and effect ; to adapt himself 
to outward physical conditions ; to subdue unruly 
appetites ; to compel the material world to yield 
most benefit at least expense. That is practical edu- 
cation which enables a man to transact miscellaneous 
business with ease and despatch ; to preside with 
dignity at the called meeting ; to perform the duty 
of trustee or guardian ; to meet the requirements of 
family relations ; to plan a house ; to choose a book ; 
to select a picture ; to derive profit or pleasure from 



LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN II 

travel. Practical education introduces a man to 
mankind, and acquaints him intimately with himself. 
That is practical education which assists one to rise 
above prejudice, bigotry, partisanship, superstition, 
and conventional folly ; to estimate himself and others 
with candor and correctness ; to discern the signifi- 
cancy of actions and the tendency of opinions and 
events ; to sift the speech of the demagogue ; to vote 
for the right man ; to advocate the best measure. 
That is practical education which educates a human 
being to think his own way to conclusions, and to 
express conclusions with forcible accuracy ; to ask 
and answer questions pertinently ; to generalize with- 
out vagueness, and to specialize without triviality ; 
to marshal his mental forces for attack or defence in 
a sudden emergency as an able commander marshals 
his regiments. 

Yes, practical education should make of each man 
the most that the limits of his constitution will ad- 
mit. Education, like religion, offers a second birth 
to the soul. A good schooling regenerates the intel- 
lect, adding to the natural man an inestimable growth. 
The school is truly a second mother to nourish youth 
to manhood. Let the boy become a man. Then 
will he remain a man, not dwindle to a manikin nor 
lapse into a brute. Then may he trust himself and 
be trusted by his fellows. Then may he master the 
art of living, having served his rigorous apprentice- 
ship. Then may he confidently meet the years, 
clasping their friendly hands as, one by one, they 



12 ESSAYS 

welcome him onward to success. For education 
helps to preserve body and soul from functional 
feebleness and decay. One of the sages of the 
Talmud declares that " As the wise grow old their 
minds become more substantiated." When boys 
and girls grow restive in school, and over-anxious to 
escape the discipline of study, they should be reminded 
that the acquisitions of eighteen may prove the most 
precious resource of eighty. 

4. YOUNG AMERICA AT SCHOOL. 

The American boy considers himself a man at 
about the age of sixteen. To him the idea of re- 
maining in school after his voice begins to change 
is preposterous. He will never consent to squander 
the prime of life in humdrum exercises with slate 
and lexicon. That sort of thing is for children, but 
men of sixteen must be doing for themselves in the 
arena of actual life. There is something pathetically 
ludicrous in this young American scheme of doing 
for self. How many, alas! have done for the7nsehcs 
by engaging prematurely in the tasks that should 
have followed practical education ! 'Tis a delusive 
precept that urges youth to grasp frantically at the 
forelock of Time, — a capillary remnant much 
abused. Time flies, says the impatient father and 
more impatient mother, therefore our son must fly. 

Let us have a school on wings to bear him through 
an aerial course of study. The brief flight ended, 
the boy begins life. He esteems himself not only a 



LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 1 3 

gentleman and a scholar, but a man of business, a 
lion in society, a politician, a critic, a philosopher. 
He has graduated into the self-importance of inex- 
perienced ignorance. He sits cross-legged before 
the Sunday newspaper, sucking cigarettes ; he has a 
theory of "finance," and talks ironically on the 
"woman question;" he bluffs his seniors in con- 
versation, and indulges in a thousand other manly 
performances. 

Young America feminine is the counterpart of her 
precocious brother. She, too, is impatient, — even 
more impatient of the school restraints, and longs 
to cast them off. She gets through the seminary 
before you supposed her through the Third Reader. 
Her mental acquisitions culminate in the graduating 
essay, — thrilling production! — elegant flower of 
originality that blossoms, alas ! only to exhaust the 
parent stock which flowers so no more forever. 
After Commencement all study ceases, all reading 
drops excepting the lighter novels ; even the piano 
lessons intermit, like the chills of a half-defeated ague. 
For is not Esmeralda's education finished .'* She 
finished that at school. And now Esmeralda is 
doing for herself. She is practically educated. She 
is accomplished. She is done for. She is ready to 
marry. 

The eagerness of parents for immediate results in 
education defeats its purpose by communicating a 
feverish restlessness to the youth, who, instead of 
regarding their school duties as regular business to 



14 ESSAYS 

be discharged with fidelity, are constantly looking 
beyond their books to an imaginary "actual life " of 
business or pleasure. This illustrates exactly the 
national fault which Herbert Spencer criticised when 
he visited the United States, He observed as a 
general fact, "the American, eagerly pursuing a 
future good, almost ignores what good the passing 
day offers him ; and, when the future good is gained, 
he neglects that while striving for some still remoter 
good." The dreadful delirium for early participation 
in what are called the actual affairs of life prevents 
all moderate living. 

Actual affairs ! What affair can be more actual 
than that of bringing youth to the state of manhood 
and womanhood ? What business can be so impor- 
tant as the acquisition of power to do business ? It 
is not education to send children through school, or 
to send school through them. The pupil must 
absorb the school ; must digest and assimilate the 
elements of knowledge and virtue. This takes time. 
The boys and girls who " go through " are sometimes 
diseducated : they lose their natural aptitude for 
the very pursuits which schools profess to fit them 
for. They go through and come out half-developed 
physically, not half-developed mentally, without estab- 
lished moral principles or power of self-government ; 
without the strong armor of experience, or the sharp 
weapons of discipline, and, rushing into the conflict 
for subsistence, for pre-eminence, for riches, for 
happiness, they miserably fail 



LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN I5 

5. WHAT IS A MAN ? 

'' Let him first be a man." But what is a man ? 
There are so many ideas and so few ideals. Some 
one relates that an English school-girl answered the 
question "What is the difference between man and 
brute ? " by saying, " The brute is an imperfect beast ; 
man is a perfect beast." Shall our education develop 
such an animal ? What kind of man shall our Ameri- 
can boy become before he begins the special duties 
of life } What shall be his preconceived notion of 
success ? To judge by the Plutonic standards which 
many follow, success consists mainly in acquiring 
riches. '' How much is he worth } " means not at all 
what is his intrinsic value, but how much money has 
he .-* If the power to pile up wealth is the chief end 
of school-training, being the chief end of man, then 
should the conscientious schoolmaster train his 
pupil to be sharp and shrewd and self-seeking. The 
boys should be taught to spell the word educate 
e-d-g-e-u-c-a-t-e, to give ed^^e to the mind. He who 
would cut his way to the many-mansioned place of 
the millionnaire must be a keen blade. But how if 
the young man don't want to be a money-maker ? 
Perhaps, like Matthew Arnold, he would prefer the 
heaven of ''sweetness and lisfht " to the Eden of 
riches. When Arnold died his estate was valued at 
only a few thousand dollars, yet who will say this 
great lifter-up of civilization was an unsuccessful 
man or that he left the world no rich bequest ? 



l6 ESSAYS 

Who will say that Agassiz, who whimsically said he 
had no time to waste in making money, was not 
a winner in life's battle ? How beautifully other men 
drew golden swords for him that he might pursue 
the paths of science and so aid mankind ! He 
needs must be about his Father's business. Or, take 
the case of Emerson, who, though he gained material 
fortune, did not seek it, but devoted himself to amass- 
ing a capital of thoughts and dreams, — a millionnaire 
of ideas. 

" Planter of celestial plants, 
What he has nobody wants." 

Is it the object of our schools, or should it be, to 
make Vanderbilts, or Arnolds, or Emersons ? or to 
make Grants, or Gladstones, or Beechers ? When we 
say, " let him first be a man," do we have any particu- 
lar man or class in view ? Not at all. The shining 
lights of the world may serve to guide and illumin- 
ate all men ; but each man must work out his own 
destiny self-impelled and directed by the inner lamp 
of individuality, or he can never become a " success " 
in any sense. It is wrong to deceive children or 
college students with the belief that the general 
training they receive from books and teachers will 
make them poets, or presidents, or railroad kings, or 
this or that. The knowledge, the study, the physi- 
cal exercise, the discipline of body and soul, which 
the school should afford, are to preserve an ideal type, 
not to differentiate a unit. First, the typical man, 
sound in body, sound in mind, endowed with the 



LET HIM FIRST BE A MAN 1/ 

possessions which the wisdom of ancient authority 
and the prescience of modern reason have agreed to 
consider the best culture, and then the practical 
man, exercising his special talent according to the 
bent of his will. 



ESSAYS 



II 

THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 

In the Book of Genesis we read that "The Lord 
God formed man of the dust of the ground." 

Josephus says more particularly, that Adam was 
made of red clay. According to Grecian mythology, 
Prometheus compounded the first man of clay and 
particles taken from various animals. The Moham- 
medans say that God made Adam of seven handfuls 
of earth from different depths and of different col- 
ors, collected by the angel Azrael. The alchemists 
and astrologers, in their vague but bold speculations, 
wrote much of the human body, the Microcosm, or 
little world, supposed to be made up of every ele- 
ment to be found in the three kingdoms of nature, 

— in the Macrocosm, or great world. The modern, 
ingenious, and beautiful theory of evolution — recog- 
nizing the kinship of man to all that lies below him 

— was it not symbolized and foreshadowed by the 
old philosophies ? 

Francis Bacon, commenting curiously on the be- 
lief of the alchemists, remarks that *' the body of 
man is of all existing things the most mixed and 
the most organic," and that '' this, indeed, is the 
reason it is capable of such wonderful powers and 



THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS I9 

faculties ; . . . abundance and excellence of powers 
reside in mixture and composition." 

Science determines with accuracy the kind of 
material of which the body is made. About twenty 
simple substances have been detected by the chemi- 
cal analysis of the human organism ; these combine 
to form between eighty and ninety physically differ- 
ent components, technically called "immediate prin- 
ciples." The immediate principles make "structural 
elements," such as cells and fibres, and from "struc- 
tural elements " are developed all the tissues, such as 
fat, muscle, nerve, and bone. Of tissues are fash- 
ioned the organs of motion, digestion, circulation, 
respiration, sensation, generation, that are severally 
called systems, and that collectively make a complex 
mechanism named the system. 

The human body comprises about two hundred 
bones, — rods, plates, levers, shields, — deftly articu- 
lated, bound together by silvery ligaments ; four 
hundred red elastic muscles — lithe, half-reasoning 
laborers that serve King Brain ; veins pulsing purple 
currents, and arteries conducting crimson streams — 
the bright brooks that water the Little World and 
purify themselves in their own swift-running ; innu- 
merable pearly nerves — the telegraphic wires of the 
Microcosm. Hundreds of millions of these wires run 
from the brain ; by their means any part of the "skin 
of the hand is brought into connection with, per- 
haps, two hundred muscles." 

Within the body, by mysterious processes, bread is 



20 ESSAYS 

transformed into blood, and blood into flesh and 
bone and brain. Fluids of subtile quality thread their 
intricate way through a thousand " natural gates and 
alleys," building and destroying ; vital air permeates 
minutest vessels, diffusing heat and energy to every 
fibre. A man requires three thousand pounds, or a 
ton and a half, of food a year to keep his body in 
repair and to keep it alive and warm. Twenty mil- 
lions of blood cells are born, and as many die, at each 
beat of pulse. In the lungs are six hundred million 
air cells, presenting an aggregate surface of seventy- 
four hundred square feet with which oxygen comes 
in contact. We use in a lifetime about one million 
cubic feet of air — enough to form a solid air-castle 
a hundred feet square and a hundred feet high. 

The surface drain-pipes of the body, the sweat- 
tubes of the skin, taken together, Carpenter com- 
putes, are twenty-eight miles in length ! What 
extents ! What forces ! What effects ! Is the delicate 
body of yonder slight school-girl the storehouse of 
so much material ? Is it the theatre of such enor- 
mous activity ? Is it such a power-hall ? Yes ; the 
physical forces which we unconsciously employ are 
vastly greater than those controlled by the will. 

The stark, cold corpse of man, the cadaver, 
awakens in the reflective mind admiration and 
reverence. The surgeon dissects it with ever-in- 
creasing interest. He is never done inspecting its 
parts, contemplating its structure. 

The prying microscope, the delicate knife and 



THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 21 

probe, the searching chemical test — all the fine 
appliances of science, are employed in the study of 
anatomy and physiology. But how much is im- 
perfectly known, how much undiscovered in the 
mysterious "little world," even after the incessant 
explorations of thousands of years ! 

Regard the body as divided into extremities, trunk 
and head ; or into locomotive, vital and thinking 
organs. It will aid us to form a conception of the 
perfect and admirable structure of man, if we make 
a brief examination of a single representative in 
each of the divisions named. No more interesting 
member of the locomotive or mechanical group of 
organs can be named than the hand. So suggestive 
a topic is the hand, and so prolific in '' proofs of 
design," that Sir Charles Bell made it the subject of 
one of the Bridgewater Treatises, devoting two hun- 
dred pages to an account of its mechanism and vital 
endowment. Bell and many other writers define the 
hand as belonging exclusively. to man, and from com- 
paring it with the paw, or other prehensile instrument 
of the brute creation, they deduce some of the most 
convincing proofs of the essential superiority of man. 
The number, form, and adjustment of its parts ; the 
freedom, variety, and celerity of its movements ; the 
firmness of its texture ; the peculiar power it pos- 
sesses of resisting the injurious action of poisonous 
or corrosive substances; its exquisite sensibility, — 
all tend to make the hand the most perfect instru- 
ment conceivable for the purposes to which it is 
applied. 



22 ESSAYS 

Should we survey the group of organs termed 
vital, we would at once single out the heart — that 
*' metropolitan city of the blood," as it has been 
poetically called. The heart is strong and tough, 
yet smooth, soft, and elastic. Its muscular coats 
consist of several layers, each made up of an 
incredible number of fibres twisted, inwound, and 
woven together in the most compact and intricate 
way ; its partitioned cavities, each of peculiar form, 
communicate by various openings with one an- 
other, and with the great veins and arteries ; its 
variform valves open and close with rhythmic pre- 
cision that the skill of mechanic art cannot imitate. 
Even after the brain and spinal cord have ceased to 
act — when life is extinct — the heart will sometimes 
throb. (Faithful servant, beating the march of life to 
the end — yea, and even the funeral march of dead 
life!) 

We are, when in good health, unconscious of the 
action or presence of the heart in our breast, so 
gently and noiselessly it performs its unceasing labor. 
And what a mighty labor it performs! Small as it 
is and light, only about five inches in length, and 
not more than ten or eleven ounces in weight, it yet 
pumps eighteen pounds of blood from itself to itself 
in less than two minutes. 

Calculations made by Professor Houghton demon- 
strate that " the daily work of the human heart is one 
hundred and twenty-four tons lifted through one foot." 
In other words, the heart exerts one-third as much 



THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 23 

muscle power in one day as does a stout man engaged 
in hard labor. Or, to employ another of Professor 
Houghton's illustrations, " If we suppose the heart 
expends its entire force in lifting its own weight ver- 
tically, then the total height to which it could lift 
itself in one hour is 19,754 feet," and that is twenty 
times as high as an active pedestrian can lift himself 
in ascending a mountain. 

Sovereign in the highest group of bodily organs 
is the brain. No brief description can convey an 
idea of this. Occupying the highest place in the 
structure, the dome of the temple, it is the medium 
through which the soul acts and enjoys. To reason 
and to will are its supreme functions. Chemistry 
and microscopy have labored diligently to dissect, 
magnify, and analyze the fine forms, textures, and 
substances of this extremely interesting organ. It 
remains in many respects a puzzle to the scientific 
investigator. To those unacquainted with anatomy, 
a mere enumeration of the terms used in a descrip- 
tion of the brain is bewildering. A thorough and 
exact knowledge of -the complicated organ itself is 
only to be acquired by years of industrious and scru- 
tinizing application. Its several parts, the medulla 
oblongata, the pons, the cerebellum, the cerebrum, 
are each great chapters of a greater volume. 

The brain is composed of several peculiar sub- 
stances, differing in consistency, color, and texture. 
It is massed in hemispheres, lobes, and convolutions; 
and cut up by ventricles, fissues, and sinuses. The 



24 ESSAYS 

average weight of the human brain is three pounds. 
The exterior surface, owing to numerous convolu- 
tions, presents an area of about five square feet to the 
action of the blood. Some physiologists believe that 
intellectual forces are generated upon this brain sur- 
face in a manner similar to that in which electric 
currents are developed upon metallic plates. The 
brain is hence regarded as a great galvanic battery of 
thought. Wilkinson, in his book, "The Human Body 
and its Connection with Man," says the brain 'Ms the 
heart of hearts, for it receives from the body and the 
universe spiritual blood, which its cortices pulse out 
in infinite streams;" that "it is the lung of lungs, 
for its animation is the breathing of the soul in the 
all-communicable ether ; " that " it is the stomach of 
stomachs, because of its bold chemistry in the prep- 
aration of the food of food, which is the nerve, 
spirit ; ay, and it is the primal womb of life and 
thought." 

Consider the organs of sense, the instruments by 
which the mind receives the world. 

The acuteness of sight and hearing is often spoken 
of and needs no illustration. The lower senses — 
feeling, taste, and smell — are not so much studied 
or so well appreciated as their nobler sister.^ By the 
touch, the blind not only read, they have been known 
to model portrait busts, to distinguish genuine coins 
and medals from spurious ones, to recognize the dif- 
ferent specimens in a large conchological cabinet, 
and even to distinguish the colors of woven fabrics. 



THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 2$ 

A blind man at Indianapolis turned aside to avoid 
a wood-pile, which, unknown to him, had been placed 
in the line of his usual walk. When asked how he 
knew there was an obstruction before him, he replied, 
"I felt it." Perhaps he should have said he heard it. 

The sense of pressure enables a man to use his 
hand as an accurate balance. Experiment proves 
that we are able to distinguish nineteen and one- 
half from twenty ounces by muscular sensibility. 

Exact calculations also show that the finger can 
perceive a difference of temperature of about one- 
fourth degree C. ; a sensibility, says Bernstein, 
" greater than we should have expected, since it is 
greater than that of an ordinary thermometer." 

By the sense of taste we can detect "one part 
of sulphuric acid in one thousand parts of water." 
Carpenter states that ''the experienced wine- 
taster can distinguish differences in age, purity, 
place of growth, etc., between liquors that to ordi- 
nary judgments are alike ; and the epicure gives an 
exact determination of the spices that are combined 
in a particular sauce, or the manner in which the 
animal on which he is feeding was killed " 

Bernstein asserts that the sense of smell has a 
delicacy surpassing that of any of the other senses. 
He says, " No chemical reaction can detect such 
minute particles as those which we perceive in the 
sense of smell, and even spectrum analysis, which 
can recognize fifteen-millionths of a grain, is far 
surpassed in delicacy by our organ of smell." 



26 ESSAYS 

Bacon says, in the " Advancement of Learning," 
that he thinks " it would contribute much to mag- 
nanimity and the honor of humanity if a collection 
were made of what the schoolmen call tcltimitics, 
and Pindar, the tops or summits of human nature, 
especially from true history, showing what is the 
ultimate and highest point which human nature has 
of itself attained in the several gifts of body and 
mind." Bacon further states that such a collec- 
tion had been designed in ancient times by Valerius 
Maximus and Caius Pliny. 

Influenced by Bacon's suggestions, one Thomas 
Wanley, an Englishman, about a century ago com- 
piled a work which he called "The Wonders of 
the Little World ; or, A General History of Man." 
In the introduction to this work we are told that 
its author ransacked the history of all times and 
nations and at a great expense of labor and learning, 
which renders him as great an instance of human 
industry as is to be found in his own book ; he 
o-ieaned several thousand facts which he had dis- 

o 

posed in such order as to form a complete system of 
the mental and corporal powers and defects of 
man. 

Upon examination, I find Wanley's book, though 
quaint and entertaining, by no means authentic, nor 
is it made up of matter sufficiently important. It 
deals largely in the traditional, the marvellous,. and 
the monstrous, and entirely fails of furnishing " that 
volume of human triumphs " which the great author 



THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 2J 

of " The Adv^ancement of Learning" says is want- 
ing to finish what Valerius Maximus and Pliny the 
Elder had begun. 

The first and most general reason why we admire 
man is that he presents himself to our view as the 
paragon of animals. Whatever may be the origin 
of the human species, that species is now, by many 
degrees, superior to the brute. However perfect the 
missing link may be, we know how much the average 
man of this period surpasses the average ape. Man 
'' is the only living creature that can walk or stand 
erect. ^ His face and eyes look straight to the 
front." His anatomical structure is in many ways 
different from that of the ape. The facts are all 
old but strong. 

The great distinction of man, however, is that the 
range and quality of his reason and his power of lan- 
guage lift him immeasurably above the brute creation. 
His glorious body, quintessence of dust, is worthy of 
the faculties which manifest themselves through it — 
reason, imagination, love, will power, speech. Man 
is majestic. His power over tilings is absolute. 

The grandest statue, the most impressive por- 
trait, cannot compare with the reality which it 
strives to imitate. 

Praxiteles carves well; Raphael paints skilfully; 
but what artist can compare with the Divine Mas- 
ter } No colored outline or chiselled form can ex- 
press power, stateliness, symmetry, as does the 
person of a Coriolanus, an Alexander, a Napoleon, 



2S ESSAYS 

a Webster. Long before Goethe was celebrated as 
a writer, he was admired as an Apollo. We read 
that when he entered a restaurant people laid down 
their knives and forks to look at him. Plutarch 
relates that ** Caius Marcius, being in the depth of 
winter, and in great hazard of his life, was saved by 
the majesty of his person ; for while he lived in a 
private house at Minturn, there was a public officer, 
a Cambrian by nation, that was sent to be his execu- 
tioner; he came to this unarmed old man, with his 
sword drawn, but, astonished by' his noble presence, 
he cast away his sword, and ran trembling and 
amazed." 

What glowing canvas or shapen marble reveals 
queenliness and grace as do the form, attitude, 
and movement of a splendid woman ! Marlowe, the 
painter, writing of Mrs. Siddons, said that when, in 
the character of Queen Katherine, she addressed 
Wolsey in the words, " Lord Cardinal, to you I 
speak," her statuesque attitude was the sublimest 
thing in ancient or modern sculpture. 

What in nature or art so satisfying to the aesthetic 
sense as a perfect human form or face ! Tradition 
says that Apelles, ambitious to paint a picture that 
should worthily represent the Goddess of Beauty, 
travelled for many years, and, having beheld innum- 
erable fair women, he mingled the charming features 
of all in a composition of surpassing loveliness, and 
produced an ideal Venus to which all Greece yielded 
adoration. There is another account of the origin 



THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 29 

of both this work, the Venus of Cos, and the equally 
celebrated Venus of Cnidos, executed in marble by 
Praxiteles. Alexander Walker informs us in his 
''Analysis of Female Beauty," that ''both these 
productions are said to have represented Phryne 
coming out- of the sea on the beach of Sciron, 
in the Saronic Gulf, where she was wont to 
bathe." 

Madame Recamier was so beautiful that the French 
people all but worshipped her. Once she consented 
to carry around the purse at St. Roche for a charit- 
able object. The church was crowded, the people 
standing upon chairs and pillars to get sight of her 
as she moved down the aisles. Twenty thousand 
francs were dropped into her box. At the reception 
of Bonaparte, on his return from Italy, she rose from 
her seat to get a good view of him, the crowd caught 
sight of her, and, turning from the conquering gen- 
eral, gave a long murmur of admiration. 

We pass from the contemplation of beauty to the 
study of strength and endurance. What can the 
" Paragon of Animals " do and bear ? What can he 
not ? Though man in infancy is helpless, he be- 
comes at maturity very powerful for a creature of 
his size. A man's power is estimated to be one-fifth 
of a horse-power ; that is, the daily labor of a 
workingman is performed at the expense of force 
sufficient to lift three hundred and fifty-four tons 
through one foot. A man of ordinary strength may, 
by the advantageous application of his muscular 



30 ESSAYS 

energy, lift two thousand pounds at a single effort. 
Dr. Winship of Boston was enabled, by patient prac- 
tice, to raise the enormous weight of twenty-seven 
hundred pounds. 

Dr. Bellows says, in his letters from Europe, that 
the Alpine climbers of the Rifel make their twenty 
miles' tramp over glaciers and cols eleven or twelve 
thousand feet high without serious fatigue and with 
great enjoyment. Frederick Hassaurek reports sim- 
ilarly of the Equadorean arrieros, ''who trot fourteen 
or fifteen leagues a day over rugged mountain roads, 
now ascending steep acclivities, now hurrying down 
steep and muddy ravines." Byron and his friend 
swam the Hellespont in emulation of Leander ; Ida 
Pfaff crossed the Andes on foot ; Marie Mathsdotter 
made a journey of six hundred miles alone on skates ; 
a diver won a wager by walking several miles at the 
bottom of the Hudson. 

There is something more than amusement in the 
equestrian performances of the circus, the perilous 
leaps of the Hanlons, the difficult evolutions of the 
ballet-dancers, the skill of accomplished swordsmen. 
Yet not in miraculous feats of trained gymnasts 
and athletes does human strength show at its best. 
The application of man-power and endurance to 
useful purposes gives dignity to muscle. Bodily 
strength and fortitude make it possible for man 
to obtain and hold dominion over the lower animals 
and over the substances and forces of nature. Read 
Victor Hugo's iron description of the man and the 



THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 3I 

canon, Vt's et Fzr. Not alone to brain and heart 
belongs the credit of the conqueror ; the God who 
makes soul makes sinew too. Samson has a 
mission to perform as well as Solomon or Isaiah. 
There is fitness in the just worship of Hercules 
and Thor. 

Whoso honors labor must honor muscle and nerve. 
Thanks for the working hand. It is this that piles 
the wharf with box and bale, builds up the mason's 
solid stony wall, controls the locomotive's course, 
flings from his rocking boat the whaler's spear, 
overcomes the frenzy of the rearing horse, hauls the 
deep anchor from the ocean bed, holds fast the ship's 
helm in the roaring storm, directs the musket's fly- 
ing: shot, and wields the flashino; sabre in defence of 
liberty and truth. The body is as remarkable for 
fortitude as for active power. It has the endurance 
of St. Simeon Stylites : 

" Patient on this tall pillar, 
I have borne rain, wind, frost, heat, hail, damp and snow." 

The only cosmopolitan, man is at home on the 
scorching sands of Sahara, and among the wind- 
beaten crags of Labrador. He explores the marshy 
tundras of Siberia, and the pestilential jungles of the 
Dark Continent. He plies his task in the deep, 
dread mine, and scales the snowy height of Chimbo- 
razo. He dives to the pearl-strewn bottom of the 
sea, and rises with Mongolfier's silken ball, above 
the storm cloud, into the dizzy, empty spaces of 
eternal silence and cold. 



32 ESSAYS 

Men have been known to survive for days, weeks, 
and even months without sleep ; and numerous 
examples are on record of persons whose daily 
slumbers did not exceed four or five hours. Fred- 
erick the Great was one of these. Soldiers sleep on 
the frozen ground and rise instantly to arms at the 
bugle-call. The tough Britons slept on beds of sticks, 
scorning a softer couch. Canadian lumbermen sleep 
soundly with their bodies half submerged in the 
water of a raft, their head pillowed on a log of 
wood. 

Life may be prolonged from twenty to forty days 
without food, and from eight to twelve days without 
either food or drink. Fairly authentic reports assure 
us that certain Indian fakirs retain vitality for six 
weeks buried in underground cells of stone. 

The fortitude with which the body suffers pain 
is amply exemplified in the history of martyrdom. 
Even more to be admired than physical strength 
and fortitude, even more than beauty, is manual 
dexterity. What cannot the hand make and manip- 
ulate ? Observe the skill of the base-ball player, 
the oarsman, the archer, the rifleman, the composi- 
tor, the engraver, the phonographer, the micro- 
scopist. Not to weary you with illustration, let only 
the art of the musician engage your mind for a 
moment. Can we conceive a finer and more com- 
plex mechanical accomplishment than is exhibited 
by the violin-playing of a master like Wilhelmj ? 
Think of what his fingers can do ! 



THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 33 

The human hand becomes a thing divine. Even 
more wonderful are the vocal organs. A trained 
singer can determine the contraction of the vocal 
organs to the seventeen-thousandth part of an inch, 
so nicely is the instrument tuned. Then hear it 
play ! Listen to Gary or Kellogg or Patti : — 

" The melting voice thro' mazes running, 
Untwisting all the chains that tie 
The hidden soul of harmony." 



Do we ask more proof that the human body, with 
all* its infinite capabilities, is the master-work of the 
Creator ? 

Shakespeare portrays man in a few sublime sen- 
tences : — 

" What a piece of work is man ! How noble in 
reason! How infinite in faculties! In form, and 
moving, how express and admirable ! In action 
how like an angel ! In apprehension how like a 
God ! The beauty of the world ! The paragon of 
animals ! " 

If the temple wherein the soul dwells for a time is 
so perfect, if it is so deserving of honor and admira- 
tion and care, how much more perfect and wonder- 
ful and worthy of care is the soul itself, and what 
inexpressible perfection and wealth are comprised in 
body and soul together, — in man, — in the august 
creature who was made only a little lower than the 
angels. 



34 ESSAYS 

What a theme is this to invite research, to excite 
imagination, to inspire reverence for the master- 
work of the Master-worker ! Mind of Man ! Who 
can estimate its forces or enumerate its modes of 
action ? In what language can we portray the intel- 
ligence which informs the body, making dust divine? 

Is the body beautiful — how can we paint the in- 
effable loveliness of the spirit ? Is muscle swift and 
strong ? Thought flashes in an instant to the verge 
of space. Thought is stronger than Titan, heaving 
the earth when he breathes. Does the body endure 
a hundred years .-* The mind endures forever. Is 
nerve sensitive ? Can the ear discern whispers, and 
the eye catch the gleam of distant stars ? The mind 
receives the music of the spheres and sees the pro- 
cession of ages filing along the shore of time. 

If from the pages of history we should select 
examples showing the vast intellectual and moral 
achievements that individuals have actually made, as 
we have attempted to show by authentic facts what 
physical accomplishments men really possess, what 
an overwhelming array of evidence would we have of 
the possibilities of human nature. Whatever facul- 
ties or powers have been manifested in any human 
being exist in embryo, or in a more or less devel- 
oped state, in every complete individual. 

The thorough development of all the faculties, 
bodily and mental, of a complete man, would furnish 
the world with a perfect man. Human culture em- 
braces all the processes by which we approximate to 



THE PARAGON OF ANIMALS 35 

such development. These processes are the means 
of culture. The ends are as numerous and diverse. 
Culture aims to secure every true, good, and beau- 
tiful thing, mortal and immortal, to which man can 
aspire. 



36 ESSAYS 



III 



FUNCTIONS OF THE PREPARATORY 
SCHOOL 

The preparatory school, because it is preparatory, 
holds a position of peculiar trust among educational 
institutions. No one loses the impress made upon 
him, the impulse given him, by the first schooling 
he receives. 

What is the main purpose of education ? What 
the essential duty of the teacher } — To develop mind, 
brain power, mental and moral force. This develop- 
ment is effected not merely by accumulating knowl- 
edge, as one puts gold in bank, but also by training 
the powers of thought and feeling, by arousing the 
faculties to original action and conscious achieve- 
ment. The subjects taught are of a value propor- 
tioned to their good effect on the mind. Lessons, 
like food, are taken for their nourishing quality. 
They must enter into the intellectual circulation. 
Not the studies, but the study educates. 'Tis labor 
lost to store facts in the brain if they serve no other 
use than when in books. 

Your pupil is fitted for college when he knows how 
to answer the entrance examination questions, and, 



FUNCTIONS OF THE PREPARATORY SCHOOL 37 

besides this, knows how to think, how to listen, how 
to learn, how to co-operate with books and teachers, 
and how, in some degree, to direct his own course. 

For, as Ouintilian says, " Why do we teach pupils 
but that they may not always require to be taught ? " 

Much is it desired that some plan be devised by 
which competitive examinations shall test the powers 
as well as the possessions of the mind. 

None know better than college professors how 
important it js that the freshmen start with right 
habits, motives, and aspirations. Some educators 
make a strange distinction between fitting for college 
and fitting for life, as if one fitting were incompatible 
with the other. Better not fit for college at all if 
that fitting unfits for life, present or prospective. 

Do the most for your pupil to-day, and he will 
have the best possible preparation for to-morrow. 
Each day's mental growth should be a beautiful con- 
clusion to all preceding growths and a hopeful begin- 
ning to all following. 

The object of all schooling is to strengthen and 
enrich the human faculties. The best education 
gives to man's natural powers the right direction and 
greatest efficiency. The superior teacher endeavors 
to impart to his pupils both knowledge and the art 
of getting knowledge. He conveys by his teaching, 
not only the contents of books, but also correct 
habits of study, thought, and speech. He seeks to 
expand the intellect, regulate the affections, and 
impel the will of his pupils, so that they may be 



38 ESSAYS 

trusted to use their minds and acquisitions rightly, 
at all times and places, without supervision. 

The cramming system, fostered, I fear, as much 
by the colleges as by the lower schools, is opposed 
to every axiom of pedagogics, and earnest teachers 
everywhere protest against it. 

In Strasburg a method prevails of compelling 
geese to eat in order to increase enormously the 
size of the liver, iox pates dc foies gras — fat liver 
pies. The unhappy goose is shut up in a box barely 
large enough to hold him, and is crammed with food 
several times a day. His bill is forced open, and the 
pabulum is poked down his throat with the finger. 
Alas for the poor goose or gosling who is crammed 
with indigestible knowledge, be it science, mathe- 
matics or classics ; whose memory grows prodigious 
at the expense of health, reason, wit, fancy, feeling, 
taste, manner, and conscience. 

This process of cramming is part of the compli- 
cated operation known as machine education, so 
much, but not enough, criticised and condemned. 
The terrible '' machine," though found in the most 
mischievous perfection in large public schools, in 
cities whence it is difficult to remove it, is set up also 
in many schools, where there is no excuse for tolerat- 
ing it. Teachers are not so much to blame for the 
existence of the "machine" as are the people, too 
many of whom, though theoretically opposed to it, 
practically regard it as a useful and necessary part 
of school apparatus, and, unless they see the usual 



FUNCTIONS OF THE PREPARATORY SCHOOL 39 

forms, papers, reports, per cents, text-books, and 
external routine in general, are apt to take alarm and 
suspect something visionary. Too often the friends 
of better education are like the temperance man in 
Maine, who was in favor of the prohibition law, but 
opposed to its enforcement. 

Reforms go forward but slowly when not encour- 
aged by public sentiment. Nevertheless, as a Ger- 
man philosopher says, *' To elevate above the spirit 
of the age must be regarded as the end of education." 
We must pursue in patience the path of our feet. 

Education should proceed with free steps along a 
broad way. Learners, properly instructed, take an 
active, happy interest in their work. Teachers 
often quench desire by pouring in knowledge. They 
should create thirst for knowledge, and the pupil's 
eagerness will lead him to the fountains. The 
only thoroughness possible proceeds from willing 
effort. The boy who does not care for his own 
progress does not advance. You cannot teach a 
pupil what he zvill not learn. A humble mood is 
the first requisite of the student. Only the docile 
have discovered the secret of power. Obedience is 
victory. The demands of a good school are rigorous 
and exacting. True are the words of Joubert : " Edu- 
cation should be tender and severe, and not cold and 
soft." 

Youth needs guidance ; no greater evil can befall 
a boy than to be left to do as he pleases. The duties 
that a preparatory school prescribes are imperative, 



40 ESSAYS 

and should be done with scrupulous integrity. Let 
no one hope to reap the sheaf of scholarship except 
with the sickle of toil. 

One of the functions of a preparatory school is to 
discover and respect the individuality of pupils. We 
cannot fashion all characters in the same way, and if 
we could, we should not. We defy nature when we 
force John to be James, or either of them to imitate 
ourself. You must be you ; he, he ; and I, 1. Nature 
fixes that; education must accept nature's condition. 
Yet children cannot know themselves or their own 
bent ; teachers must discover the natural tendency, 
and act from a knowledge of it. Diversity in dispo- 
sition does not necessarily call for great difference in 
treatment. A beginner in learning cannot be a cor- 
rect judge of what he ought to study or not to study. 
The young are almost certain to mistake their 
wishes for capacities. 

The competent educator recognizes diversity of 
ability in young people, as in older ones, whether 
owing to hereditary influence, state of health, or 
other cause. It is not to be expected that pupils 
develop with equal rapidity or in the same degree 
under similar schooling. Enough if each works up 
to the limits of his power. 'Tis a misfortune, not a 
vice, to be, like Snug the joiner, "slow of study." 

The merit of a teacher is tested by what he does 
for the tortoise, not by the fact that he causes the 
hare to run swiftly. Take care of the blockheads 
and the heads will take care of themselves. 



FUNCTIONS OF THE PREPARATORY SCHOOL 4I 

Yet the blockheads and the incorrigibles may, in 
the long run, win the goal of scholarship and virtue. 
Stupidity, stolidity, inaptitude for special studies, 
vicious tendencies, are to be regarded as chronic 
diseases ; the wise physician of mind may cure them 
by patient treatment. 

The perfect work of education cannot be accom- 
plished except in the individual who comes from a 
stock prudently cultivated for generations. Train- 
ing your pupil you are continuing the work of 
his ancestors' teachers, and you are possibly edu- 
cating his posterity. Seed brain, like seed corn, 
propagates its kind, improved or deteriorated by cul- 
ture. When we grade our pupils, is it not just to 
bear in mind what share of their success or failure 
depends upon birth and family influence, and what 
upon their own independent effort ? 

Finally, the preparatory school must take time 
and pains to cultivate goodness, courtesy, and deli- 
cacy in pupils. Every class should be a class in 
conduct, though no precepts need be announced. 
Every relation of teacher and learner should induce 
in both gentle and gracious behavior, self-respect, 
dignity, and sense of honor. The greatest value of 
any education is its moral value. The schools are 
the foremost promoters of civilization. They should 
illustrate the best habits of the best society. 

In a word, the ideal duty of the educator is to 
make the best of his pupils by preventing all per- 
versions and assisting all normal faculties to attain 



42 ESSAYS 

their true functions. Beautiful and inspiring is that 
sentence of a wise French thinker : — 

'' Man might be so educated that all his prepos- 
sessions would be truths, and all his feelings virtues." 

Sacred is the task of the teacher ; let us approach 
it with reverence, and discharge it with religious 
fidelity, for education is the science of life, and con- 
duct is its cognate art. 



SCHOOLMASTERY 43 



IV 

SCHOOLMASTERY 

I. GUIDE, SHEPHERD, AND PILOT 

The word paidagogos, from which we derive peda- 
gogue, a teacher, and pedagogics, the science of 
education, means primarily, "■ child-leader." The 
Greek pedagogue, as is well known, walked with the 
children to and from school, took care of them, 
helped carry their books and harps, taught and pro- 
tected them. 

The Anglo-Saxon term for pedagogue is child-herd, 
shepherd of human lambs. 

The word schoolmaster is a strong, serviceable 
compound containing both Roman and English blood. 
Master is derived from magis, greater, and stoer, to 
steer, and hence means chief steerer, principal pilot, 
or ruling director ; in other words, one who is able 
to control his affairs so as to obtain successful re- 
sults, to helm his ship to the desired port. There is 
a suggestive antithesis between the words inagister 
and minister, the greater and tlje lesser pilot. The 
fact that we say schoolmaster and church minister 
suggests that the teacher has more absolute power 



44 ESSAYS 

than the preacher. The former commands and con- 
trols the young and plastic ; the latter persuades the 
mature and fixed. 

The function of the teacher has widened, and the 
dignity of his office has been magnified in modern 
times. We call the teacher not only pedagogue, 
child-herd, schoolmaster, but also instructor, pre- 
ceptor, disciplinarian, educator. The efficacy of his 
work has doubled because it has come to include 
her work ; for girls now go to school with the 
boys, and women teach with men. What an ac- 
cession to the civilizing forces of the world ! There 
once was a time when literature was addressed to 
men only, and when women who wrote or read were 
considered out of their proper sphere. Now men 
and women write alike for women and men, and both 
sexes participate in teaching and learning. 

2. WHAT THE SCHOOLMASTER MASTERS. 

Schoolmastery is a double mastery. It puts and 
keeps the school, as a whole, and every pupil, in the 
best condition to learn, and also causes all to learn 
what is best to know. Further than this and more 
important, it compels the school and every pupil to 
do the things they know, thus making bodily, intel- 
lectual, and emotional acquirements, practical forces 
in bettering society and self. 

The dual purposes of his office will be present 
constantly to the mind of the master. His duties 
are both impersonal and personal, — the class he 



SCHOOLMASTERY 45 

teaches is a thing ; the members of it are persons, 
boys and girls. The school must be regarded as a 
community working out a problem of social and 
political duty, and as a number of individuals each 
destined to a personal existence and bound to pur- 
sue a special ideal. The master fashions the opinion 
and colors the conduct of his small republic. He 
masters both brain and heart. The schoolmaster 
masters the school's will. 

All this he does, not despotically, not to oppress 
or to suppress, but to strengthen and expand the 
powers of his subjects. He bears them up on eagle's 
wings, for the sake of teaching them to fly. 

3. TEACHING AND GOVERNING. 

Usually the excellent instructor is the successful 
ruler. The teaching faculty seems to carry with it 
authority. The disciplined mind makes itself felt 
as a disciplining mind. Whatever regulates the 
thoughts of a pupil also regulates his outer conduct. 
When a boy is thinking, he ** comes to order." Skill 
in imparting knowledge commands respect and elicits 
attention. The teacher whose stock of knowledsre 
is large and varied, and whose method of communi- 
cating ideas is clear, captures his school by charming 
their intellect, and thus he escapes conflict with 
their passions. 

Yet it must be conceded that skill in teaching is 
not always associated with ability to govern. The 
pulses of the blood cannot be reached by appeals 



46 ESSAYS 

to reason. Man is an animal, especially when he 
is a boy. The schoolmaster must learn the '' art 
Napoleon," which, though difficult to acquire, is 
learnable. Some are born to rule. Equally true 
is it that some are born with tact for teaching. 
Now and then one appears in the flesh, endowed 
with special gifts of rulership and teachership. But 
if the schools wait for Providence to send them 
miraculous masters, they must wait too long. 

The professor of pedagogy should give his scheme 
scope enough to include the art of governing youth 
as a necessary part of the teacher's preparation. 
The normal-school graduate, when he goes forth to 
seek a position, ought to bear with him as distinct 
understanding of how to govern as of how to teach. 
He must widen his conception of the training that 
fits him to educate boys and girls. How can he 
educate them in the elements of learning, unless he 
knows how to hold them in a receptive attitude ? 
He must o-et at them in order to instruct them. Per- 
haps more than half the teacJdng zve do is ivasted 
becaiLse we do not, by controlling their wills, prepare 
pnpils to receive knowledge. 

4. PERSUASION AND FORCE. 

Themistocles, the Athenian general, demanding 
tribute of the revolted cities, gave it out that ''he 
had on board his ships two powerful divinities — Per- 
suasion and Force ; and whoever would not follow 
the former must submit to the latter." The school- 



SCHOOLMASTERY 47 

master relies on the same ''two powerful divinities," 
to secure obedience to the necessary laws by which 
the intellect, the affections, and the will of youth are 
rightly educated. 

Obedience to proper authority for just and desira- 
ble objects is necessary from every one. The teacher 
should assume that every salutary school law is 
sacred, and must be observed, not because he com- 
mands so, but because it is salutary. The teacher is 
as imperatively bound to execute good laws as his 
pupils are to comply with them. No personal issue 
need be made. The law is impersonal ; the teacher 
reveres the law because it is the means of doing 
good to his pupil; he says, like Paul, "The law is 
ojir schoolmaster," — yours and mine; he rejoices 
when the pupil conforms to the rule of right; he is 
sorry when the pupil falls below the required stand- 
ard and compels the lawgiver to become judge and 
executive. 

The teacher, like the parent, unites in his office 
the three governmental functions. He must define 
what is to be done ; he must decide the manner of 
doing it ; he must enforce the duties demanded. 
There is constant danger that he will abuse his 
unlimited power, through ignorance or want of self- 
control. Therefore he should be forever on his 
guard. The history of education shows too many 
examples of the mistakes of the pedagogue in the 
art of rulership. The records unhappily prove that 
Force has often been appealed to when Persuasion 



48 ESSAYS 

should have been sought. If this were not so, the 
literature of the world would not present so fright- 
ful a gallery of the pictures of ill-tempered and 
despotic schoolmasters. 

Books on school government repeat the maxim 
that force should be resorted to only after other 
means are exhausted. This is often, but not always, 
true. Force should occasionally be the first resort, 
especially with very young pupils and with older 
ones in whom, as Plato says, '' The fountain of rea- 
son is not opened." It is impossible to persuade a 
mind incapable of reasoning, or to move feelings 
incapable of activity. The object of both persua- 
sion and force is to set the wrong right. When the 
wrong is set right, both persuasion and force become 
useless. 

The purpose of government, and therefore of its 
agencies, persuasion and force, is twofold, having 
reference to scholarship and to conduct. The stu- 
dent must study — must obey the laws that regulate 
the development of memory, reason, judgment, lan- 
guage. But since conduct is more than learning, he 
must also behave properly — must obey the laws of 
his moral nature. The kind of persuasion and the 
kind of force that induce him to master his lessons 
and to control his general conduct, visible and invisi- 
ble, is what the schoolmaster must go in quest of, 
and seek till he finds. That secret is his holy grail. 



SCHOOLMASTERY 49 

5. DR. Arnold's way. 

Mr. Stanley, in his biography of Thomas Arnold, 
says of that celebrated teacher : — 

" Pie recognized in the peculiar vices of boys the same evils which, 
when grown, become the source of so much social mischief. He 
governed his school on precisely the same principles he would have 
governed a great empire ; and constantly exemplified to his own mind, 
or the minds of his scholars, the highest truths in the simplest rela- 
tions of boys towards each other and towards him. The boys were 
treated as school-boys, but as school-boys who must grow up to be 
Christian men; whose age did not prevent their faults from being 
sins, or their excellences from being noble and Christian virtues, 
whose situation did not make the application of principles to their 
daily life an impractical vision. ... In proportion as he disliked an 
assumption of false manliness in boys was his desire to cultivate in 
them true manliness, as the only step to something higher, and to 
dwell upon earnest principles and moral thoughtfulness as the great 
and distinguishing mark between good and evil. Hence his wish 
that as much as possible should be done by the boys, and nothing for 
them ; hence arose his practice of treating the boys as gentlemen and 
reasonable beings, of making them respect themselves by the mere 
respect he showed them, of showing that he appealed to their own 
common sense and conscience." 

Dr. Arnold's method of dealing with the boys of 
Rugby has been applied in more than one American 
school with the most beneficial results. Indeed, 
the plan seems more American than English, being 
founded on a democratic idea. Mr. Hughes tells us 
that the Rugby boys told Dr. Arnold no lies because 
they knew he would believe tJiein. Confidence begets 
confidence, suspicion excites suspicion. The conflict, 
open or secret, that goes on between teacher and 
pupils in many, if not in most schools, is unnatural 



50 ESSAYS 

and unnecessary. The majority of boys and girls 
will co-operate fully and sincerely with a competent 
teacher who, without reserve, takes them at their 
word, in full faith, and acts upon the theory of 
mutual trust. The minority he can master com- 
pletely with the aid and sympathy of the majority. 

The emphasis that Arnold placed upon inculcating 
''earnest principles and moral thoughtfulness " in 
his pupils points to the central fact in the science 
and art of school government. Boys and girls can 
never be trusted by parent or teacher who does not 
rely on their own moral sense, and learn to exercise 
their minds in the direction of conscious, thoughtful 
self-sfovernment. In other words, individual charac- 
ter must be educated and developed in boys and 
girls. 

6. HOW NOT TO GOVERN A SCHOOL. 

A gentleman owning suburban grounds, with fruit 
orchard and flower garden, put up at conspicuous 
points on the border of his premises, the warning 
inscription, "No Trespass," painted in threatening 
capitals of black on a white board. The purpose of 
these imperative notices was to prevent depredation ; 
the effect was to provoke the wanton spirit of all the 
boys of the neighborhood. The curt notice was con- 
strued into a challenge ; the boards were battered to 
pieces with stones ; raids were organized to spoliate 
the unwise gentleman's vineyard and water-melon 
patch. His vigilance to anticipate trouble antago- 



SCHOOLMASTERY 5 1 

nized Tom, Dick, and Harry, and precipitated the 
evil it was easrer to avert. 

The gentleman's wife employed a different and 
more successful method of protecting the place. 
She caused a hedge of rose-bushes to be planted 
around the premises, and the obnoxious warnings 
were removed. When the next June came, " the 
boys " came also ; but instead of marauding, they 
paused to admire the beautiful and friendly barrier 
of blossoms, and, after consultation, concluded that 
it would be a shame to destroy what Mrs. Thompson 
had provided for the pleasure of the wayfarer. The 
prudence of Mrs. Thompson had quite changed the 
disposition of Thomas, Richard, and Henry. 

Prohibitory orders, when uncalled for, are sure to 
bring out antagonism. Forbidden fruit is ever 
sought, whether it be good or evil. Blue Beard's 
wife looks into the closet. Tell a boy that a few 
drops of nitro-glycerine will blow his head off — he 
straightway studies chemistry to find out how to 
make nitro-glycerine. Tell him you will skin him 
alive if he don't behave himself, and he will set all 
his wits to invent ways and means of misdemeanor. 

Therefore think twice before you threaten to pun- 
ish for prospective violations of the law. Expect 
your pupils to do right, yet be prepared for them to 
do wrong. Neither require nor prohibit acts that 
you are unable to control. 



52 ESSAYS 

7. THE TRUE STORY OF '* RUSTY NAILS." 

A very unpromising lad, reputed incorrigible, 
applied for admission to a certain city school. He 
sullenly admitted that he had been expelled. The 
urchin rejoiced in the peculiar nickname " Rusty 
Nails." Rusty Nails had been rattaned until his 
body was all callous. He had won some reputation 
as a teacher-fighter. The proprietor of the new 
school decided to take him on probation, at the 
beseeching solicitation of his father, an eccentric 
gentleman of frail will but stalwart affections. So 
on Monday morning Rusty Nails entered the new 
school, filled from crown to toe top full of direst 
insubordination. Now, it happened that the first day 
glided by under influences strangely pleasant, and 
no occasion arose for any sort of conflict. The 
teachers and schoolmates of the notorious bad 
boy acted towards him just as if he were one of 
the family, showing him perhaps a little special 
courtesy because he was a stranger. The second 
day shed its civilizing light and warmth on him, and 
a curious change began to take place in Rusty 
Nails. A month elapsed, and the boy carried home 
a '' Report," giving his father the astonishing 
intelligence that his son's '' deportment " was '' ex- 
cellent," and that he had ninety-four per cent in 
"problems." 

*' What is the meaning of this } " asked the in- 
credulous parent. " There must be some mistake ; 



SCHOOLMASTERY 



53 



your ' Reports ' before this always gave your conduct 
as very bad. Were they true, or is this ? " 

"Well, pa," said Rusty Nails with a broad grin, 
" I'll tell you how it is. Them ' Reports ' was true, 
and this here one is true. The fact is, nobody in 
the new school seemed to want to lick me, and there 
was no use in being bad." 

8. THE IDEAL TEACHER. 

The model teacher should be — should he not be a 
perfect man ? Surely should the teacher whose mis- 
sion it is to point the way to perfection, whose special 
work in life is so grand in its scope and objects, 
surely should he be a developer of men. Yes, " let 
him first be a man " in the full and vigorous exercise 
of all those qualities that go to make up human 
nature. Let him be a man armed at all points for 
the varying fortunes of the battle of life. Let him, 
so far as in him lies, be such a man as in his own con- 
ception excellent education may produce, so that he 
may stand both as guide and example. Let him be 
a man each day rising towards his ever-receding 
ideal, each day realizing his highest possible destiny 
in the constant endeavor to attain unto the unattain- 
able, each day approximating unto perfection. 

Within the circumference of his activity as a 
human being and professor of humanity is included 
the smaller circle of his particular vocation as an 
educator of the young. But each special calling de- 
mands some peculiar qualities in its votary, and some 



54 ESSAYS 

distinctive adaptations. While practising his chosen 
profession, art, or trade, every man should be appro- 
priately costumed and equipped, and should give 
himself up with all his mind and with all his might 
to the duties of the day. The soldier, armed and 
uniformed for war, is familiar with the manual of 
tactics, and is prepared to march and to fight. The 
surgeon, differently trained, attired, and provided, has 
mastered anatomy and knows how to use his case of 
instruments. The priest has a preparation, apparel, 
and manner suited to the pulpit. The teacher, like- 
wise, requires a professional outfit adapted to his 
field of operations. This field is the school and its 
environments. The obligation of the schoolmaster 
is to educate to the best of his ability an assemblage 
of children, over whom he exercises an almost un- 
limited authority. This authority is not natural, but 
delegated, and, acting in the place of many parents, 
the teacher occupies a very delicate position, beset 
with difficulties. He holds responsible relations to 
private confidences and to public trusts; he links 
families to the State. At once he is nominally 
parent and magistrate, yet suffers the disadvantage 
of being neither of these in reality. He has no blood 
claim to the obedience and affection of his pupils, 
and seldom thinks of appealing to police force or 
judicial intervention in the management of his small 
community. In fact, the family and the State both 
stand aloof and trust him, or, rather, require him to 
sustain his position, and establish his reputation by 



SCHOOLMASTERY 



55 



virtue of independent judgment, skill, and sagacity. 
The tenure of his office depends upon the results he 
achieves. In many schools, especially country and 
village schools, everything is trusted to the teacher. 
He can do as he pleases, provided only that he gives 
satisfaction. He is expected to understand what he 
is about. ''Nothing succeeds like success;" but 
how achieve success ? How acquire the mastery of 
the situation and the confidence of pupil, parent, 
trustee, and people ? 

Circumstances may do much to aid the teacher : 
an intelligent and liberal community, a good school- 
house eligibly located, convenient furniture and ap- 
paratus, attractive books to study and read, pictures 
on the wall, a piano, flowers. But all these are non- 
essential : the teacher is more than circumstances — 
he is centre. Circumstances are things which stand 
around ; the master creates circumstances for his 
necessity. Garfield's noted and notable saying can- 
not be quoted too often — "A bench with Mark 
Hopkins seated on it becomes a university." The 
teacher who ascribes his failure to the schoolhouse, 
or the text-book, or the incorrigible boy, resembles 
the farmer who condemned the prairie because it was 
destitute of trees, and the forest because it was 
covered with woods. We must take things as the); 
are. 

Leaving out of consideration the teacher's deal 
ings with his employers, patrons, and the neighbor- 
hood in general, let us inquire what qualifications 



56 ESSAYS 

and deportment will best promote his success in the 
specific work of his six or eight hours' daily educat- 
ing within the schoolroom. Happy for him if nature 
has cut him out for the business he has chosen. Un- 
happy for him and his charge if he is unfit in body 
or mind for that business. To win and sway his 
school, to secure respect and love, he should possess 
an attractive exterior, a dignified bearing, a pleasant 
face, an agreeable voice,, a charming manner: to 
command obedience and inspire awe, he should also 
have the look and manner pertaining to authority, 
— must be every inch a king, and ready to sacrifice 
inclination and sentimental softness to order and 
law. The sternest are sometimes the gentlest. He 
must be a benignant angel to loyal and trusty pupils, 
but a terror to the shirk, the sneak, the liar. Yet 
there need be no putting-on of threatening airs, or 
clothing the offended powers with thunder. Napo- 
leon did not " swell round." 

Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the 
necessity to the teacher of bodily vigor, activity, and 
vigilance. The master, or mistress, must have good 
eyes and ears — keen senses generally, and know 
how to employ them. Ever on the alert, and yet 
never perturbed, he must know what is going on and 
what is coming on. His will, like a reserved military 
force, must rise at call, if need be, to meet and over- 
throw the combined rebellious will of his school ; for, 
be he never so just, there will tumults arise on 
occasion, and the very best pupils will sometimes 



SCHOOLMASTERY 5/ 

conspire to resist their own good. Veterans in 
teaching will tell you that when everything seems 
perfectly serene in school, and all goes, as it 
were, without effort or friction, then look out for 
trouble ! 

It is bad policy for the teacher to appeal to the 
school for personal sympathy by alluding to tasks, 
sacrifices, headaches, or the like. But if it should 
hap to become known to the pupils that the teacher 
suffered and made no complaint, the moral effect is 
powerful. Boys especially admire one who takes 
hurts without '' squealing." 

Due attention to external appearance and what may 
be called physical accomplishments, no less than to 
social arts, is quite as necessary as the regular mental 
and moral preparation for which the teacher's license 
vouches. The certificate may testify that its bearer's 
character is irreproachable and his scholarship supe- 
rior, but in spite of all that, boorish behavior, slovenly 
habits, vulgar associations, will counteract every paper 
recommendation, and defeat every ambition of the 
candidate for high position in the teacher's profession. 
In saying this I do not underrate the supreme im- 
portance of complete intellectual equipment. 

The usual preparation of teachers for the practice 
of their profession is desultory and confused. It 
should be definite and methodical. 

The special training, the professional fitting or 
finishing, should be preceded by a sound education. 
The young man or woman who contemplates becom- 



58 ESSAYS 

ing a teacher should first obtain a clear and full 
knowledge of the leading facts and principles of sci- 
ence, language, and literature ; should get a good 
academic education, a large fund of information, a 
ready facility in mental operations. Such funda- 
mental schooling is what every cultivated man and 
woman nowadays is assumed to possess. This is 
the usual American stepping-stone to the profes- 
sions. 

But the person of sound general education is not 
a teacher any more than he is a lawyer, a doctor, a 
theologian, an artist, an actor. There maybe " born 
teachers," as there are born musicians and orators ; 
but I am now writing of the rule, not the exception, 
of made teachers, not the miraculous few who came 
into the world labelled First Class Edjtcator. Was 
there, in fact, ever such prodigy, or is the ''born 
teacher" a myth.? The "born teacher," if there 
be such, will not bring a knowledge of algebra and 
parsing into the world with him, and therefore he, 
too, must go to school awhile. The basilar education 
furnishes whomsoever has it a pedestal on which to 
erect any tower of particular knowledge, but is not 
itself a professional fitting. It it true, however, that 
as teachers deal with the elements of learning, the 
experience of every student is, in some sense, a prep- 
aration to teach, wherefore all good schools partake 
of the nature of normal schools, and especially so 
when they exemplify the best methods of instruction. 
The scholar who has been taug-ht and trained bv an 



SCHOOLMASTERY 59 

expert will not fail, if he becomes a teacher, to imi- 
tate the example of his own preceptor. 

Nevertheless, no matter how fortunate may have 
been the general education of a student, he needs 
his special course before entering a special profession. 
It should be the function of the Normal School, or 
the pedagogical Chair of the University, to conduct 
him along this special course, just as special institu- 
tions and professors guide students to the degree of 
Medical Doctor, Civil Enginefr, or Bachelor of Laws. 
The student who, on account of poverty, or any 
other cause, cannot go to normal school or univer- 
sity, may study at home. He will miss the advantage 
of lectures, quiz, and examination, and the benefit 
which comes from attrition with other minds, but 
there are some compensations for his loss. Books 
know everything that is known. Books are not ex- 
pensive. Books rival the professors and compete 
with the university. What must the student read 
in order to learn the business of teaching ? 

Of course he must master, in detail, the branches 
he is expecting to teach. These he has studied al- 
ready, in the childish way, at the common school. 
They must be restudied in the manly way. The 
maturer mind will discover in the elementary text- 
books much that escaped the beginner. The one 
or two manuals to which the school-boy's lessons 
were confined will be supplemented and corrected by 
many others which the grown-up investigator will 
peruse. 



60 ESSAYS 

But it is not enough to know accurately the contents 
of the text-books. The pupil reads to acquire and 
memorize; the teacher reads to impart. His voca- 
tion requires him to know how to teach in general, 
and how to teach every particular branch with the 
best economy of his own and the pupil's time and 
strength. This requisition calls for a close, clear, 
and complete study of methods of teaching. 

Furthermore, since the great object of education 
is to develop the humar^iind, the teacher must know 
the structure and nature of the mind, — must know 
psychology, the science of mind. 

And as the mind is manifested through the bod- 
ily organism, and is dependent on the brain, the 
teacher should know, thoroughly as possible, the 
science of physiology and collateral branches. An 
understanding of psychology and physiology — mind 
and body — must underlie any scheme of education 
that can justly be called scientific. 

Educational practice, as now conducted, is largely 
empirical. Yet much of it rests upon sound maxims 
derived from successful experiment. Perhaps it can 
be said with truth that modern education is an ex- 
perimental science, and that our progress depends 
not alone upon the direct study of the faculties of 
mind, but also upon what has been demonstrated in 
the past by actual trial. The History of Education 
therefore contains the philosophy of education, and 
the teacher must give hundreds of hours to the study 
of that history. 



NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOLMISTRESS 6l 



V 



NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOL- 
MISTRESS 



Mother Nature is the sovereign schoolmistress. 
The teacher who does not co-operate with her fails ; 
who does co-operate with her, succeeds, for she is the 
authorized principal of all the schools. Her creden- 
tials come from on high. Her certificates are signed 
by the Great Examiner. 

Man has his part in training his fellow-man ; he is 
his brother's keeper ; but his duty is limited by his 
ignorance. Human responsibility extends to the 
verge of human wisdom and virtue, which is soon 
reached, and beyond that verge Divine hands relieve 
us of our tasks and cares. Children come out of the 
mystery of Heaven, and are consigned to our trust 
to be nurtured, taught, made ready for the career 
called living, and the destiny called dying. From 
God we come into the world ; out of the world we go 
to God. From the infinite unknown to the infinite 
unknown is the brief flight called mortal existence. 

Nature, the daughter of God, sits in the earth to 
interpret her Father's will. Her lap is filled with 



62 ESSAYS 

the records of centuries, and she opens to man sibyl- 
line chapters foretelling what humanity shall become. 
She is the Sovereign Schoolmistress. Hear ye her 
voice. 

Man's first duty is to educate his kind ; and to 
educate is to assist nature, not to supplant her, not 
to oppose her. Could we only know how to adjust 
ourselves to the laws of God (which are nature's 
laws), we might hope to educate with a potency 
hitherto not dreamed of. 

We must educate children — must instruct, con- 
trol, inspire, direct them, by the wisest means we 
know ; but we must not forget that they also educate 
themselves, or are educated by inworking forces ; 
that the very structure of their being determines 
their culture ; that nature gives impulse to every 
faculty, and defines every function of body and mind. 

Teachers cannot create mental and moral elements 
in pupils ; as well may they try to create physical 
organs by gymnastic training. We may retard, de- 
velop, regulate, harmonize existing organs and forces, 
but that is all we can do. The educator's utmost 
science is to know nature's laws ; his supreme art is 
to co-operate with them. This is the economy of 
economies. 

Boys and girls should not be left to run wild ; 
nevertheless, the same instinct and energy which 
runs them wild is the power on which to rely in pro- 
pelling them up the hill of civilization. The misap- 
plication of power is evil, but power itself is good. 



NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOLMISTRESS 63 

As where there is life there is hope, so where there is 
mental force there is promise. It is a radical mistake 
to regard the faculties of the soul as essentially bad 
or wrong. There are no evil passions or base pro- 
pensities. The complete man possesses all the fac- 
ulties named or not named in mental and moral 
philosophy. The perfect man uses all, misuses none, 
of these faculties. Evil springs from misuse, and 
misuse is the result of ignorance more than of con- 
scious law-breaking. The teacher has cause for dis- 
couragement and grieving when he discovers a strong 
faculty perverted ; yet he should take heart from the 
reflection that conversion is always possible ; that, in 
fact, the best skill of his days must be employed in 
converting. One may deal confidently with a devel- 
oped faculty, — with an active, positive, vigorous 
force ; but how much more difficult and perplexing it 
is to germinate an embryo, to hatch an ^g^ of the 
mind, and feed the chick through the gaps of infantile 
feebleness ! 

There must be some natural order of development 
in man. Each individual grows, feels, wills, acts, 
according to the tendency and possibility of his 
nature. As observations in meteorology bring us 
nearer and nearer to the realization that every change 
in the weather depends on fixed laws, and that even 
the variable winds and electric storms obey an invari- 
able force, so the study of man's nature tends to 
prove that what seems accidental and irregular in 
character and conduct may be in accordance with 



64 ESSAYS 

persistent forces understood and applied by superior 
wisdom. Men are alike in elementary constitution, 
but diverse in development. From unity education 
produces infinite variety. Nature seems to abhor 
sameness. She differentiates, and we err when we 
oppose her method. 

The organization of the human being is so in- 
tricate, so complicated, so multitudinous, that science 
is foiled in her attempts to discover the law of its 
operation. Here is a clock-work which no one but 
the maker understands. It has been running for 
thousands of years, — some say for millions, — and 
yet it has not revealed the mystery of its structure. 
We can see the index moving, but we cannot see the 
wheels and springs, the weights and pulleys, within. 
We observe eccentric attachments, but know not 
how they are organically connected with the machine. 
We may break open the case, and curiously pry 
within, and learnedly name the parts, — protoplasniy 
and gray matter, and iiei^vc-force ; but, alas ! when 
the clock is broken, it is not a clock. 

The most pedagogical pedagogue must frankly own 
that man is a mystery. But this mystery is not all 
mysterious. Some things we know, and much we 
may learn, and all is known to the Creator. Using 
what we know, learning what we can, and trusting 
Him for the rest, let us enter our schoolrooms and 
do our work 



NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOLMISTRESS 6$ 

II. 

Much time is wasted at school in attempting to 
teach children what they are not old enough to learn. 
The farmer is not so unwise as to plant corn in 
January. And how foolish the parent or teacher 
who thinks to grow, in the child's brain, the reason- 
ing powers, the conscience, the moral sense, before 
the season ! When my pupil was six years old he 
could not comprehend the simple elements of arith- 
metic and grammar, though he studied by the hour, 
and stained his slate with tears. When he was 
twelve he found no difficulty in elementary arith- 
metic and grammar ; and he wondered that he had 
ever regarded these studies with disgust. Nature, 
thou patient schoolmistress, why didst thou not 
teach me not to teach ? 

We do not look for ripe fruit on succulent sprouts. 
Why expect the elaborate essence of morality in 
early youth.? Green apples are bitter and sour. 
The fond mother weeps at what she deems the 
depravity of her young son. Remember the boy is a 
boy, not a man. He is yet in the savage state of his 
individual life. The marvellous insight of Plato 
long ago discovered the real state of the case. 
''The boy is the most unmanageable of all animals. 
He is the most insidious, sharp-witted, and insub- 
ordinate of animals." But hear how the wise Greek 
explained the fact. The boy is thus, because " he has 
the fountain of reason in him not yet regulated." 



66 ESSAYS 

Yes, boyhood is the primitive period of human 
life. It is a heroic age, a dramatic era, a time of 
war and love, but not civilized, much less enlightened. 
Shall we call it the Thor period, of which the lead- 
ing idea is Jiammej-f Boy as boy is interesting to 
contemplate, but who could bear to exist with a 
perpetual boy } He is a never-ending noise, and 
a ceaseless explosion of dynamitical violence. Our 
mental ejaculation to the average boy is that of 
Dickens's benevolent Cheeryble to his brother : 
" Devil take you, Ned, God bless you ! " 

Have patience with these obdurate young brethren. 
Their ugly transitional traits will not last. Let the 
surgent blood leap while it will, and let the animal 
grow. Bear and forbear. Yes, be thankful that 
Sam is Thor, hammering thunder out of the sky ; 
not pale Narcissus, drooping by the brook of death. 
The finer principles of benevolence, pity, piety, 
gentleness, self-sacrifice, are of slow culture. You, 
there, who sit at the teacher's desk, have you quite 
tamed the savage in you } 

Trust Mother Nature to punish the boys. Gracious 
Matron ! she forever whispers deep lessons to their 
hearts. Sam weeps on her consolatory bosom, after 
.disdaining his mother's plea, his father's condemna- 
tion, and his master's rod. Yes, rigorous yet gentle 
nature knows the boys will not forever stone the 
pigs, slay the cats, and pull off the birds' heads ; 
they will not always monopolize the nicest of the 
apples, and beat their sisters for reporting the facts. 



NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOLMISTRESS 6/ 

Experience discovers limitations to their tyranny, 
and teaches even their selfishness to seek gratifica- 
tion in less objectionable ways. They throw away 
the Thor hammer of their own accord, seeing it is 
not the best instrument with which to win hap- 
piness. 

The farmer finds it almost impossible to crush, 
with roller, harrow, and hoe, the stubborn clods of 
his field ; but under the action of rain, frost, 
sunshine, and gravity, how often those same 
stubborn clods fall to pieces of themselves, and 
crumble down about the roots of the wheat and the 
barley ! So the teacher finds it difficult to subdue 
and reform incorrigible propensities that, if left 
alone, will soften, yield, and disappear, under the 
beneficent influences which commonly bear upon 
youth. How many efficient assistants every teacher 
might have if he were wise enough to recognize 
them ! The first assistant ought always to be the 
teacher's own pupil. Ah ! I spoke without reflec- 
tion, and should have said the teacher is only first 
assistant to the learner ; for real education must 
always be, in the main, self-help. 

III. 

He who co-operates with nature in the work of 
educating the young will discover that nature's text- 
book is illuminated on every page with the inspiring 
word, Freedom. Freedom is the best good. Freedom 
is good for the body, good for the soul, good for 



6S ESSAYS 

man — for each organ and part of him, even to the 
minutest atom that enters into his composition, and 
for every motion of life or spirit that stirs his being. 
Freedom is strength, activity, life, — loss of freedom 
is feebleness, paralysis, death. Freedom is neither 
license nor constraint ; neither stimulation nor stu- 
pefaction ; nor the condition of the over-nourished, 
hot-house plant, nor of the neglected weed by the 
barren wayside ; nor of the rank, untended wild vine 
of the forest ; but it is the state of the cultivated 
vegetation of the fertile, sunny garden bed. Free- 
dom is the condition which allows man to become 
his perfect self in the happiest way. It is favorable 
opportunity to conform to the law of individuality, 
to adjust man's faculties to their natural and proper 
use, to seek and find one's own physical and spiritual 
heritage, and to reach the full stature of independent 
manhood. J Freedom is not the right to do as you 
please ; it is the liberty to do and become what you 
are capable of in the legitimate exercise of your own 
powers — the privilege of obeying the eternal com- 
mandments inscribed by the Creator i^on your 
members and your mind. ' Freedom, ideal and abso- 
lute, is the glorious liberty of the sons of God. 

There can be no true obedience without freedom. 
To obey the laws of health I must be permitted to 
obtain proper food, practise suitable exercise, breathe 
pure air, and sleep in peace. The mind's health, 
also, requires wholesome surroundings and oppor- 
tunity to enjoy them. Elegantly has Holmes elabo- 



NATURE THE SOVEREIGN SCHOOLMISTRESS 69 

rated an old, familiar figure illustrating my subject: 
" Look at the flower of a morning glory the evening 
before the dawn which is to see it unfold. The deli- 
cate petals are twisted into a spiral which, at the 
appointed hour, when the sunlight touches the hid- 
den springs of its life, will uncoil itself, and let the 
daylight into the chambers of its virgin heart. But 
the spiral must unwind by its own law, and the hand 
that shall try to hasten the process will only spoil 
the blossom that would have expanded in symmet- 
rical beauty under the rosy fingers of the morning." 
Not only must the plant blossom in its own way, 
it must remain of its own species. Shall one say in 
obstinate pride or blind conceit, '* I will make of this 
plant what I please. I will conform it to my ideal, — 
it shall bear peaches, — it shall bloom roses, — it 
shall ripen corn, — it shall grow, like Jack's bean, a 
hundred miles high, — it shall be a creeping moss " ? 
Or shall we reflect, with humility, as co-workers with 
God, " What will come of this marvellous perennial 
that I am permitted to train ? What lovely and here- 
tofore uiKieard-of blossom may it unfold ? How can 
I best nurture and protect its tender leaves ? How 
can I discover what soil, situation, and culture are 
best adapted to it ? " 

I Let us emancipate ourselves from the slavery of a 
mechanical system which ignores nature, forgets 
God, and reduces us to tasked operatives, supervis- 
ing a spinning-jenny. Emancipate the children from 
the tread-mill task of grinding out lessons for the 



JO ESSAYS 

sake of recording the grists. Lead them back to 
the freedom of nature ; make them conscious of 
mind, thought, affection, duty, and joy. Feed them 
not on husks, but call them to the fruity orchard of 
vital knowledge, and to the flowing waters of living 
.virtue. Measure success, not by the number of sub- 
jects taught, but by the number of minds roused to 
action. Count it no merit to have "passed" a class 
with an average per cent of 99, unless you can claim 
also that the class has learned to love learning. 
Show one boy or one girl whom you have induced to 
study as a pleasure rather than a tax, and you de- 
serve the crown of praise. Make of this boy an 
original man; make of this girl a woman whose 
mind to her shall Kingdom be, and no crown of 
praise can add glory to your brow, j 

Oh, that some blessed revival could come upon the 
brain and heart of our profession ; could fall like 
sunlight from heaven and illuminate and warm us 
for our duty ! For we forget the principal things we 
should remember. We lapse into unconsciousness 
of our greatest privileges. The teacher should more 
than teach, more than govern, more than love ; 
he should inspire his school. • Inspire, breathe into 
the pupil the animative principle, the soul-breath, the 
awakening spirit that gives consciousness of the 
need of activity, power, culture, education. 



TOPICS OF THE TIME 7I 



VI 

TOPICS OF THE TIME 

I. "experiments of light" 

''God, on the first day of creation, created light 
only, giving to that work an entire day, in which no 
material substance was created. So must we like- 
wise, from experience of every kind, first endeavor 
to discover true causes and axioms, and seek for ex- 
periments of light, not for experiments of fruit. 
For axioms rightly discovered and established supply 
practice with its instruments, not one by one, but in 
clusters, and draw after them trains and troops of 
works." 

This text, from that inspired, philosophic bible. 
Bacon's "Novum Organum," suggests a sermon, not 
more important to the scientific explorer than to the 
practical educator. That ignorant men should fail 
to see the worth of " Experiments of Light " is to 
be expected, for they do not reason far enough to 
comprehend general principles. But that educated 
men — men educated to educate others — should 
hold a prejudice against such "experiments" is 
almost incredible. Yet we know that many teachers 
do mistrust and disparage speculative discussions on 



72 ESSAYS 

pedagogics, and emphatically call for '' experiments 
of fruit" before "experiments of light." 

It is noticeable that the majority of those who 
attend teachers' institutes and normal schools seek 
methods rather than systems, and are impatient with 
even the most fruitful axioms, though grateful for 
even the barrenest rule or regulation to imitate. 
Young teachers are apt to regard the very terms 
Theory and Practice as antithetic. What is theo- 
retical they assume is impractical. To such an 
opinion a wise rebuke is to be found in a very ancient 
Hindoo poem, in which the deity himself is made 
to say, '' Children only, and not the learned, speak 
of the speculative and the practical doctrines as 
two." 

All intelligent practice must grow out of theory ; 
that is to say, thought must precede correct action. 
That workman bungles who does what he is told 
without knowing why he does it. The teacher who 
follows his master's advice, not comprehending the 
motive, aim, and end of that advice, can never suc- 
ceed. Such a teacher is an automaton — a mechan- 
ism of springs and wheels that must soon run down 
and cannot wind itself up again. 

Imitating what another does is not doing, but only 
pretending to do. The teacher's art, like all arts, 
depends on its science. How profoundly true and 
how encouraging is Bacon's assertion that ''theories 
supply practice with its instruments, not one by o?ie, 
biU in clusters y and draw after them trains and trvops 
of works y 



TOPICS OF THE TIME 73 

No sadder delusion can becloud the brain than 
that broad, philosophical thinking unfits the thinker 
for practical details of work. Experience proves 
that the men who comprehend subjects in their gen- 
eral relations are the men who set a true value on 
particulars. 

How may a teacher train a mind if he doesn't 
know what mind is ? How can he educate without 
conceiving an idea of education in the abstract ? In 
a word, what is it to acquire the teacher's profession 
if it be not to master a comprehensive science ; 
namely, the science of teaching ? 

To possess a good education is not to be a good 
educator. The teacher should possess knowledge — 
the more the better — for, as Goethe says, ''There 
is nothing more frightful than a teacher who knows 
only what his scholars are intended to know." But 
no amount of learning minus the science of educa- 
tion can make a person master of the teacher's pro- 
fessio7t. The knowledge that distinguishes the edu- 
cator from other educated men is the knowledge of 
the principles of pedagogics, theoretic and applied. 

The physician who thoroughly understands anat- 
omy, physiology, chemistry, medicine, surgery, who 
has studied the body in health and disease, is pre- 
pared to practise his art. 

The lawyer who comprehends the fundamental 
principles of law and justice, who realizes the full 
meaning of his text-books, is ready to undertake a 
suit in court. 



74 ESSAYS 

The teacher who has patiently examined the his- 
tory, philosophy, and literature of education, who has 
formed a definite conception of the human faculties, 
and of why and how they may be developed best, 
may begin to teach school. 

The objection that the region of speculative ped- 
agogics is a land of fogs, should incite explorers to 
clearer discoveries. If we must walk in the fog, it 
is better to light a lantern. Better, it would seem, 
to pursue the divine method recommended by Bacon, 
and illuminate our way. And if the teacher must 
choose between the visionary and the empirical, is it 
not barely possible that the visionary may prove 
the more hopeful of the two ? Happier he who sees 
visions and dreams dreams of professional progress 
than he who is content to plod on, not knowing or 
caring whither his steps tend, not sure that they tend 
any whither except around a tread-mill. 

2. BOTH SIDES ARE RIGHT. 

There is much wisdom in taking both sides of a 
disputed question, not in a partisan, but in a philo- 
sophic spirit, and by taking both sides, learning the 
truth and the error each contains. Every debatable 
question is debatable because its affirmative and its 
negative statement both appear right to some and 
wrong to others, and may, in fact, both be true and 
both false in some part or degree. 

Dogmas in political economy, sociology, ethics, 
religion, education, are seldom absolutely demon- 



TOPICS OF THE TIME 75 

strable, by logical process, like a mathematical prop- 
osition. The science of pedagogics is not yet an 
exact science. The scope of it is infinite ; the themes 
it discusses are too numerous and complicated and 
too subtle to be caught in the net of definition. 

How admirable is that magnanimity which, while 
sincerely holding its own view, and even ready to die 
for its convictions, can yet candidly say, **The other 
view may be right, and, if I saw so, I would change." 

The conflict of theories, in the pedagogical arena, 
is productive of practical good ; and every attempt to 
deduce first principles in education is a step in the 
direction of reform. Yet it is never to be forgotten 
that theory is theory, and is true only so far as it can 
be verified by f^ct. We must have theories in edu- 
cation, as in physics or chemistry, and for the same 
reason ; namely, to give unity and direction to our 
work. 

A favorite dogma in the modern science of educa- 
tion appears to be that the purpose of schooling is 
not learning but development. Pupils used to go to 
school to store their minds with knowledge ; now 
they go, as we say, to strengthen their faculties, to 
cultivate the power of thought and the habit of duty. 

Are not both ideas correct, and is there not danger 
that, in putting so much emphasis on the new state- 
ment, we may underrate the value of the old } The 
end of education is the same now as it used to be ; 
that is, to benefit the educated individual by impart- 
ing to him knowledge, in which process power must 



^6 ESSAYS 

necessarily be imparted. There is no such thing 
conceivable as mind-development unaccompanied by 
the acquisition of ideas. Learning is the food of the 
brain by which all thought and feeling are nourished. 
The measure of a mind's actual knowledge will be 
also the measure of its acquired ability, A confusion 
arises, in our reasoning, from misunderstanding what 
is meant by knowledge. Knowledge means more 
than the memorized facts. The scholar comprehends 
principles, causes, effects, differences, similarities, 
and all the relations and combinations of facts. 

The protest against mechanical education, against 
cramming and working for per cents, is timely, and 
cannot be too strongly put. This protest, however, 
is hurled, properly, not against knowledge, but against 
a false method of imparting knowledge. If the 
mechanical methods were successful in conveying 
knowledge, the fact that they are mechanical would 
not stand against them. If you can cram knowledge 
into the children, in God's name do it ; but you cannot. 
The student who is crammed is not intellisfent ; he 
does not know facts ; he gains neither information 
nor discipline. There is no mechanical way of pro- 
ducing intellectual results. Dean Swift's Academy 
of Laputa is not what is, but only what Gulliver saw. 
Why should we try the experiment of writing a geo- 
metrical problem on a wafer and compelling our 
pupil to swallow it, in order to impress the demon- 
stration on his brain .? 

Fire hot volleys all along the line of discussion. 



TOPICS OF THE TIME *J*J 

against the stupid, old or new methods of teaching ; 
but have a care that you do not hit what you do not 
aim at, and wound the dignity of solid learning. 
Both sides are right. The object of education is to 
store the mind with knowledge, and it is also to 
develop mental power and moral character. The 
acquisition and retention of exact, systematic, true, 
good and beautiful knowledge create a clear mind 
and a pure heart. Knowledge and power are one ; 
they coalesce and become wisdom, the prize that is 
precious above rubies. 

3. DISCO. 

Disco means to know, to learn, in the widest sense. 
From the word are derived disciple, a learner, and 
discipline, learning, or the result of learning. Disci- 
pline and knowledge are one. 

When, therefore, we speak of subjects as having 
special value in disciplining the mind, we do not mean 
that such subjects are of a different nature from 
other kinds of knowledge, or that they can be learned 
or used in a peculiar way. That scholar is disciplined, 
in a degree, who knows how to calculate the interest 
on a note, or how to roast a turkey. Discipline is 
required in order to write one's own name, or to tell 
the difference between a ball and a cube. Greater 
discipline is called for in doing more difficult things, 
or thinkino; more difficult thouo^hts. 

One must learn before he can do. The more one 



7^ ESSAYS 

learns the more can he do. All knowledge is disci- 
pline ; there is no discipline outside of knowledge. 

It is a delusion to suppose that mental power can 
be acquired by any exercise of the faculties that does 
not imply the possession of ideas. How can we con- 
ceive of a mathematical ability severed from a com- 
prehension of mathematics ? or of logical skill with- 
out logic .'^ or of linguistic power apart from knowl- 
edge of language ? To assume that the results of 
knowledge can be obtained without knowledge is to 
assume that the whole is less than the sum of its 
parts. 

All knowledge is not of equal value, but power 
comes only in proportion to acquisition. The ques- 
tion is not, Can knowledge and discipline be sepa- 
rated ? but, What knowledge, i.e., discipline, is most 
valuable } 

The orio^inal forms in which a certain kind of 
knowledge may have entered the mind may be oblit- 
erated or forgotten, while the essential knowledge 
may be retained, as an algebraic formula contains, in 
permanent, usable result, many particular examples 
once solved but afterwards not thought of. The 
mastery of the formula was the binding of many 
straws into one sheaf — was gathering knowledge in 
principle. 

This grasping of principles or general truths is 
what scholars understand by mental discipline. There 
is no royal road to it. There is no short road to it. 
There is no smooth road to it. The superficial and 
inaccurate student can never attain it. 



TOPICS OF THE TIME 79 

Teachers and learners should divest themselves of 
the notion that education is only a key to unlock the 
treasury of knowledge, or that discipline consists in 
the mere effort of unlocking a treasury. Education 
is not the key or the treasury — it is key, treasury, 
and treasure. 

4. NATURAL ABILITY PLUS EDUCATION. 

Going to school or college may indeed spoil the 
boy, but good education spoils him not. The for- 
tune left to young Princely was his ruin, yet how 
good a thing is money ! 

Education may subtract some efificient qualities 
from natural ability, but adds ten where it takes 
away one. The wild peach has lovelier blossoms and 
fruit of more piquant flavor than the cultivated tree, 
yet the latter is most valued. An edge-tool, as 
Quintilian says, loses something in the process of 
sharpening, but who therefore thinks a dull tool is 
best ? The marble loses substance and strength 
when hewn into a statue. Rough stone is better 
adapted to some purposes than polished blocks, 
nevertheless the polished block is alone fit for finest 
uses. 

What can a keen blade do that a dull one cannot ? 
What can a microscope do that the naked eye can- 
not ? The dull knife may be fine steel ; it must be 
sharpened, tempered, ground, whetted for the engrav- 
er's hand or the surgeon's. The shaping, tempering, 
grinding, whetting educate the good steel for its 



80 ESSAYS 

exquisite functions. Something is lost, much is 
gained. The eye must be a good eye before it can 
be helped by the microscope or the telescope ; but 
never can the naked eye, however good, see a blood 
corpuscle or the rings of Saturn. Optical instru- 
ments magnify and multiply vision. 

Uncultured natural talent or genius is the naked 
eye, the native iron. Education cannot create origi- 
nal force. Falstaff longed to know where a "com- 
modity of good names could be bought." 'Tis easier 
to buy a good name than a good capacity. Schools 
cannot furnish the stuff ; they only manufacture it. 
Out of pot-metal pots can be made — most excellent 
pots. Damascus steel will make Damascus blades. 

Every mind is bettered by correct education ; the 
greater the natural ability the more right culture 
will add. 

5. THE QUICK COAL. 

" Man is no starre, but a quick coal 

Of mortal fire : 
Who blows it not, nor doth controll 

A faint desire, 
Lets his own ashes choke his soul." 

These quaint but piercing lines from rare George 
Herbert's poem " Employment " afford the student 
a warning, the scholar an incentive. Activity is the 
price of culture ; the intellect must be kept alive by 
the breath of the will ; the faculties disused fall to 
decay. It is a common observation that mechanical 



TOPICS OF THE TIME 5 1 

skill is acquired and retained only by habitual prac- 
tice. Wilhelmj, the celebrated violinist, said : ''If I 
remit rehearsal for one day, I am conscious of dete- 
rioration ; if I neglect practice for two days, the 
critics observe it ; if I neglect for three days, my 
audience notice it." The right hand loses its cun- 
ning, so also do the memory, the inventive faculty, 
the reasoning power. I used to know how, but I 
forget — I have lost facility. Facts and processes 
acquired at school seem to vanish from the mind. 
One man discovers with dismay that his Greek and 
Latin have flitted from him ; another cannot recall 
the once familiar method of solving a quadratic 
equation. One says, " I am rusty ; " another says, 
" The cares of this world choke out the seeds of 
culture." And so they do. Culture is a jealous 
god, and demands earnest and constant worship. 
To him that hath shall be given, and from him that 
hath not shall be taken away. Old Confucius said, 
" Learn as if you could not reach your object, and 
were always fearing, also, lest you should lose it." 
And again, " If a man keeps cherishing his old 
knowledge, so as to be constantly acquiring new, he 
may be a teacher of others." 

The student's soul may be all aglow at the end 
of his school days. The day after commencement 
brings a crisis. Will the ''honor man" then blow 
the quick coal without his teachers' prompting } 
without the enthusiasm of class influences .^ without 
the motives which emulation and ambition create ? 



82 ESSAYS 

Will he control a faint desire for self-improvement, 
or will he let his own ashes choke his soul? — his 
own ashes : sordid pursuits, sensual pleasures, dull 
indolence. 

6, DOES IT EDUCATE ? 

The core of one of Matthew Arnold's best books 
is that "The object of religion is conduct," conduct 
being at least three-fourths of life. The object of 
education — rthe main object — is conduct. The men 
and women that the teachers make of boys and girls 
at school should be men and women who can do the 
things of common life well, whether these things be 
of the hand, the head, or the heart. Conduct is the 
art of living. What is it that we value most in our 
fellow-beings '^. Is it not their facility in doing daily 
and hourly duties in a happy and generous way ? 
We like the person who is able and agreeable ; who 
applies his nature and his acquired powers to doing 
right things pleasantly. 

The child should learn to speak because speech is 
conduct, is the means of humanization, concord, love, 
and social service. He should learn to read for the 
good that reading may do to himself and to others ; 
for the meliorating, civilizing, sweetening use of 
books. He should write in order to write legibly, 
easily, for the convenience of life. To think clearly, 
to desire purely, to perform beautifully, — these are 
the purposes of training. 

All that is attempted or done in giving tasks, 



TOPICS OF THE TIME 83 

hearing recitations, advising or restraining pupils, 
should aim at the golden centre of the target — 
conduct. That is the best subject to teach which 
imparts the most usable knowledge of the most 
durable kind for common practice in affairs. That 
text-book is best which wastes the least time on non- 
essentials. Give something to each pupil at every 
lesson-time, — something worth giving, — and that 
will fashion his life in some degree for the better. 
Clinch the nail instruction. Illuminate the boy's 
mind. Quicken his moral perception. Sweeten his 
disposition. Modulate and beautify his manner. Do 
anything and everything that will tend to make him 
a lucid-minded, clean-hearted, versatile, thoroughly 
useful and happy citizen of the earth, heaven-bound. 

The branches of learning, as we call them, are all 
one in their grand purpose. They may all be com- 
mitted to memory and do no good. To learn is to 
learn. The book must be poured into the very 
veins of the pupil and circulated through him from 
brain to finger-nail. What is needed is the juice of 
the book, not the husk. He who teaches arithmetic 
well has taught all mathematics by anticipation. 
Who teaches the First Reader rightly has given 
his pupil a clew to Shakespeare, to Herodotus, to 
Confucius. Education is all one — it is feedino: a 
soul, it is bestowing upon faculties the readiest and 
noblest use of their functions. 

The school should put its pupils at once into the 
conscious exercise of their educable organs, habits, 



84 ESSAYS 

ideals. To-day this girl ought to walk, talk, look, 
think, feel, wish, hope, better than she did yesterday. 
These children, when they quit school, must move 
in the world — work, play, earn, spend, sustain a 
thousand relations to others. They must do their 
tasks, they must bear their burdens, they must live 
the life, die the death, and leave the record of a 
mortal. 

Education should fit them for all this. Does it ? 

7. THE BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION. 

It is curious to observe the first efforts of the 
child to exercise his powers and enlarge his range 
of experience. He begins to manifest his innate 
tendency to do something, and to connect his little 
intelligence with things around him, by vague, 
unsteady motions of limbs and body, and by inartic- 
ulate crying or crowing. The tiny fingers presently 
become busy. The baby picks and pries into every- 
thing, makes his mouth a universal test-tube, tears 
paper, throws his spoon, likes to make something 
tumble. His activity is incessant, like his quick 
heart-beats. He rolls and sprawls, he babbles and 
blinks. The first attempts to walk are most feeble 
and ludicrous. After hundreds of trials he learns to 
creep. After thousands of falls he is able to stand. 
How little control he has over his motions! Start- 
ing to go forward, he staggers backwards — tipsy 
fellow ! 

The child's endeavor to utter words is as wide of 



TOPICS OF THE TIME 85 

its aim as the primary efforts to handle or to walk. 
The organs of speech are unformed, — still less 
formed the mind-power which sets the machine in 
motion. Nature prompts the infant to imitate, and 
he makes the oddest approximations to correct 
speech. The tongue and lips must clamber and 
stumble, as do the puny hands and feet. 

The later attempts and struggles of the boy to ac- 
quire a surer and stronger control over his muscles, 
nerves, and mental faculties, are very similar to the 
earlier trials of the infant. The boy of ten is a 
baby when he grapples with hard studies or difficult 
arts. The mind is trained to severer thinking by 
repetition and practice only. And what are the 
highest mental exertions of the logician or philoso- 
pher ? They are baby endeavors to stand on in- 
secure ground, with unsteady feet — baby efforts to 
articulate unfamiliar language. The whole course 
of education, from first to last, seems to be a series 
of endeavors and approximations — a training of the 
faculties to higher and higher uses. The baby 
begins, but he has eternity to progress in. 

8. EDUCATION AND TEMPERANCE. 

The most profoundly efficacious "temperance man " 
is the temperate man. Not by wind-power, nor by 
water-power, but by power of example he reforms 
others. His practice preaches. His conduct is a 
moral prohibitory act. His influence enforces con- 
stitutional amendments to the habits of his asso- 
ciates and observers. 



86 ESSAYS 

Self-control is temperance. The mind should be 
the body's king. The temperate man is temperate 
at the top. He reasons, decides, and then acts. 
He administers the laws of moderation to his sub- 
jects, the desires. Two giants. Will and Won't, 
guard his appetites and propensities as the lion- 
tamer rules caged beasts ; they drive or stop his pas- 
sions, those flying fire-steeds of the brain. These 
desires, these appetites, these propensities, these 
passions are the driving-wheels of character. They 
are the heat, light, electricity of the human engine, 
all convertible into beneficent working force, yet 
ever liable to produce conflagration, explosion, and 
death. 

Man should be educated to run his own machine, 
namely, his body, according to the laws of its struc- 
ture. The greatest man, when he loses self-control, 
makes the greatest wreck and ruin. 'Tis the con- 
summation of wisdom to conserve human power. 

Few take the trouble to be moderate. Eternal 
vigilance is the price of liberty in the world of indi- 
vidual existence. The moment a man ceases to set 
sentries at the gates of his palace, the enemy will 
steal in. The temperance pledge must be taken 
anew every hour and kept every minute. License, 
excess, dissipation are every man's enemy always. 
Whosoever is out of temptation is out of this world. 
Temperance is as difficult as climbing a mountain, or 
rowing against the stream. We float or fall to the 
devil, but we toil and sweat on the road to redemp- 



TOPICS OF THE TIME 8/ 

tion. The oarsman is a fool who complains because 
the stream flows downward ; it is right that the 
stream flow downward and necessary that the oars- 
man pull hard against the rapid. 

A temperate life is the consequence of a good edu- 
cation. { A good education gives men self-control. 
A good education means correct habits early begun 
and firmly established. Sensuality, drunkenness, 
lust are dreadful diseases, hardly curable ; but they 
are preventable. Physicians use what they call j 
"prophylactics" to lessen the probability of disease. 
The prophylactic for intemperance is education, -j 
moral education. Begin with the children. 

9. UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 

Education cannot confer every benefit upon a 
nation, but it can confer incalculable good. Neither 
population nor products, money nor machinery, bul- 
lets nor ballots, will secure lasting prosperity to any 
people. Nor will all these together secure it, unless 
they become the agents of general intelligence and/ 
sound morality. True education has never disap- 
pointed the expectations of individual, community, 
or State. It has always helped man in proportion to 
his faithfulness in seeking its good offices. ' The 
more general the diffusion of knowledge among the 
multitude and the higher the popular standard of 
education, the better in every way will be the con- 
dition of man, whether in private or public life. ' 
Vast material resources, unless controlled by intel- 



88 ESSAYS 

lectual i.nd moral influences, are as systems of worlds 
destitute of the attraction of gravitation. Education 
is not everything ; yet without it a nation is nothing. 
They who put their trust in legislation as a sure 
means of maintaining good and preventing evil, are 
no wiser than they who have implicit faith in the 
saving power of wealth and enterprise. Solon, when 
asked if he had given the Athenians the des^ laws, 
replied : " Yes ; the best the Athenians are capable 
of receiving." In a republic the citizens fashion the 
government more than the government fashions the 
citizens. They are their own Solons, and dictate 
laws for themselves. But they cannot devise laws 
above their own capacity, nor will they obey such 
laws. Constitutions and statutes, banks and rail- 
roads, farms and warehouses, reflect the spirit and 
character of the men who make and manage them. 
Acts of Congress and decisions of courts are only 
marks upon the barometer scale of Popular Opinion, 
and serve to indicate the state of the intellectual and 
moral atmosphere. '. It is vain to expect wisdom 
and purity to rule at the Capitol unless wisdom and 
purity dwell at our firesides. Party corruption rages 
among the ignorant and vicious, as cholera infects 
the weak and debauched. Only education can depose 
spurious office-holders and amend evil measures. 
Intelligence desires excellent rule — petitions for 
reform of abuses — is a good law unto itself when 
thrown upon its own option. Ignorance hates all 
rule — demands license — demands anarchy — gravi- 



TOPICS OF THE TIME 89 

tates to barbarism. No statesmanship can save an 
ignorant people from ruin. Exclaims the historian, 
Michelet, " What is the first part of politics ? Edu- 
cation. And the second.? Education. And the 
third ? Education." 

There are multitudes of uneducated men and 
women in the United States, They weaken society, 
as rotten threads impair the fabric in which they are 
woven. And there are other multitudes so poorly 
and superficially educated that they are not capable of 
intelligent self-government. This nation, notwith- 
standing its boasted educational facilities, permits 
the existence of an immense class of foreigners, 
native whites, and negroes, who can neither read nor 
write, not to speak of that yet larger class of persons 
who, though they read and write, are far from being 
able to think rationally or act virtuously. These 
classes are hostile to good institutions, whether they 
know it or not, whether they wish to be so or not. 
The State must lift them up or they will drag it 
down. Universal suffrage is a doubtful good, unless 
accompanied by universal education. To extend the 
right of voting to the ignorant is to open new fields 
to the spoliating hands of the demagogue. Would 
we have the freedman appreciate his privilege ? Edu- 
cate him. Would we better the condition of woman ? 
Educate her, and she will better her condition for 
herself. Would we save the expense of poorhouse 
and prison ? We must incur the expense of school- 
houses and library. Would we avoid civil war, estab- 



90 ESSAYS 

lish business upon a sure basis, abolish the evils of 
caste, repress sensuality, and induce men and women 
to live rational, beneficial, and happy lives ? We 
must let education do its perfect work for high and 
low, rich and poor, male and female, black and white. 
' General education is general uplifting. The more 
complete the culture, the higher the elevation. Uni- 
versal and complete education is universal and com- 
plete elevation — is human perfection on earth — is 
the millennium of enthusiasts realized. 

Material resources may fail, banks break, and cor- 
porations go down ; trade may languish, and mechanic 
invention slumber ; blight may fasten upon the grain- 
fields, and drought dwindle the running streams ; the 
army may disband, and the navy lie idle upon the 
barren sea ; courts and congress may dissolve, and 
the sacred ballot-box moulder from disuse — but yon 
humble schoolhouse must not be abandoned nor neg- 
lected. To sacrifice that were fatal indeed. To stab 
the people's Free School is to pierce our country in 
the heart — is matricide. 



BOOKS AND READING 9I 



VII 

BOOKS AND READING 

Books, the main instruments with which teachers 
work, are themselves substitutes for teachers. " The 
true University of these days is a Collection of 
Books," said Carlyle ; and Emerson repeated the 
same idea in other language. 

''Strong book-mindedness," as Wordsworth forci- 
bly calls it, is a great, if not the greatest, element of 
scholarship and means of education. The student 
graduates from the seminary, but from the library 
never. Original men begin self-education where 
school education ends. Books are their post-col- 
legiate professors. 

The ignorant disparage book-knowledge ; but, in 
fact, books teach everything except, as Bacon says, 
"their own use." He who knows how to use books 
efficaciously has acquired a fruitful art. Books are 
repositories of universal experience. They record 
the wisdom and the folly of mankind. They perpet- 
uate generations. In them the past lives and the 
present moves. Whatever men know or do, books 
tell. A book is an image of the mind that conceived 
it. Authors reproduce themselves in their writings. 
Books are phonographs that repeat the message origi- 



92 ESSAYS 

nally received by them. Do not printed pages com- 
municate to us the diverse brain product of the race ? 
They instruct, argue, exhort, and amuse. They phi- 
losophize — they prattle ; they soothe — they inflame ; 
they laugh — they lament. 

Plato objects to written discourses ; that they, like 
pictures, though seeming to possess life, are silent, and 
answer no questions. They do not continue the dis- 
cussions in which they have awakened our interest ; 
cannot explain or defend themselves when challenged. 
This disadvantage of books is counterbalanced by 
the negative merit that they do not take offence 
when shut up, and have not the. tenacious persistence 
of a living bore. A man cannot always choose his 
flesh-and-blood companions ; but his associates in 
printer's ink he may command absolutely. The 
humblest reader may own the highest book. 

Though books are silent, their voices are audible 
to imao-ination. The charm of Plato illustrates this. 
The art of his Dialogue is such that it illudes the 
senses. The reader is absorbed, rapt ; he walks with 
Socrates and Phaedrus by the Ilissus and worships 
Pan. He reclines at the Symposium in the house 
of Agathon, hearing eloquent discourse of love, and 
is disturbed and amused by the troop of revellers 
led by tipsy Alcibiades. He stands in the court 
listening with breathless attention to the unavailing 
Apology ; he beholds Socrates drain the cup of hem- 
lock, and hears the last dying syllables of the tranquil 
martyr. 



BOOKS AND READING 93 

My bookcase is like the enchanted table in Faust, 
from which, at pleasure, were drawn Rhenish wine, 
champagne, Tokay. 

"The choice is free : make up your minds." 

Would I taste the vintage of science or history or 
philosophy? Here are the works of the masters. 
Here, in little space, is the labor of a life. Spencer's 
forty years of toil and thought are in those few vol- 
umes. There is Bacon. There is Gibbon. What 
did Milton say.? "Books are not absolutely dead 
things, but doe contain a potencie of life in them to 
be as active as that soul whose progeny they are ; 
nay, they doe preserve as in a vial the purest efficasie 
and extraction of that living intellect that bred 
them." 

Here are the essayists, the novelists, the poets, 
the dramatists. They proffer the honey and wine of 
their genius. I have only to wish. I have only to 
take my books from the shelves, and sit down, and 
read. 

Do I desire to hear eloquent speeches ? These 
volumes pass me to the floors of senate, parliament, 
court. I may call for whatever eloquent orator I 
prefer, living or dead, and he will make for me his 
greatest effort. Stand up, Demosthenes, and while 
away my time. 

Where shall we go to church to-day ? Already 
have Spurgeon and Beecher been to my house this 
morning, flying on the wings of the press, and they 



94 



ESSAYS 



have prayed and preached the prayer and the sermon 
of the living present. This afternoon I shall hear 
Jeremy Taylor. 

Milton uses the word '' unbookishness " to denote 
a certain rudeness of mind. In these days it is a 
disgrace not to be able to read. A taste for reading 
is regarded as a mark of refinement. The mere 
'^ dipper into books " takes higher rank than his wholly 
illiterate neighbor. Victor Hugo gives a quasi dig- 
nity to an unlettered oddity, by making him delight 
in knowing simply the names of philosophers and 
poets. The smatterer is a plane above the ignora- 
mus. A little knowledge is not dangerous, though 
danger is incurred by mistaking a taste of the Pie- 
rian Spring for a deep draught. Even the wish to 
learn is commendable. 

To possess books is not to possess their contents. 
An author's writings are properly called his works. 
It takes work to compose a substantial book, and 
proportional work to read it. How presumptuous 
that I should expect to understand in a day the 
volume I could not have produced in a lifetime ! 

Sir Walter Scott says in " Waverley," " I believe 
one reason why such numerous instances of erudition 
occur among the lower ranks is, that with the same 
powers of mind the poor student is limited to a nar- 
row circle for indulging his passion for books and 
must necessarily make himself master of the few he 
possesses ere he can acquire more." Michelet says, 
"The workman loves his books, because he has few 



BOOKS AND READING 95 

of them. Maybe he has but one ; and if it be a 
sound work, he gets on all the better for having but 
one. One book read and read over again, which you 
ruminate upon and digest, often develops the intellect 
more than a vast, indisfested mass of readin^r. I 
lived for years with a Virgil, and found my account 
in it." 

The "Autobiography" of Stuart Mill, in its "rec- 
ord of an education that was unusual and remark- 
able," shows what an enormous amount of difficult 
reading one man may do thoroughly. The complete 
and exact reading of one solid book makes the read- 
ing of a second easier. An experienced student, 
whose mind is disciplined by systematic application, 
acquires a grasp and facility of thought that bears 
him on rapidly through labored discussions and intri- 
cate mazes of knowledge. The scholar, like the 
artisan, must take time and pains to learn the use of 
his implements. 

With what varying results do different readers 
peruse the same book! One man brings riches from 
a barren page; another comes away poor from the 
very treasure-troves of literature. There are few 
mental phenomena more puzzling than that of a sane 
man or woman reading by rote from a sense of duty. 
Is it not extremely curious that any one should con- 
ceive it to be a virtue merely to read perfunctorily, 
automatically, without comprehending the word-s 
seen or uttered ^ Yet this is done, not only by 
school-children, in their parrot-like lessons, but also 



96 ESSAYS 

out of school, by grown people who seem to have 
good sense on other matters. Persons impose upon 
themselves the weary task of poring over number- 
less, bulky volumes of history or science, under the 
delusion that they are improving their minds, when, 
in fact, they are only wasting precious time, and 
inflaming their eyes. I once knew a young school- 
master who had got it into his conscientious pate that 
reading was the proper thing to do, and that the more 
pages he pronounced, the more nearly he discharged 
his duty to himself, his profession, his country, and 
mankind. He plodded through Josephus, Rollin, 
and Dick's works with incredible patience, and with 
a scrupulous attention to notes and references that 
was morally sublime. No tome was too massy for 
him ; no subject was out of his range. He would 
not have hesitated, I am sure, to undertake the 
national poem of the Kalmucks, which De Ouincey 
says measures seventeen English miles in length. 
I can hear the sigh of tired triumph with which 
Josiah (for that was his name) closed a finished 
volume of Patent Office Reports. ''There!" he 
exclaimed, "I am through that! " On a well-remem- 
bered occasion a roguish girl put Josiah's bookmark 
from volume ii. of Kane's ''Arctic Explorations" to 
the corresponding page in volume i. The patient 
plodder, when he came home from school on the day 
of this trick, turned to the bookmark and continued 
reading the whole evening, unconscious that he was 
reviewing what he had gone over a week or so before. 



BOOKS AND READING 97 

When, however, the sly maid by whose stratagem he 
lost so much time, demurely asked in her Quaker 
fashion, ''How does thee like Dr. Kane?" Josiah 
answered that it seemed to him there was a good 
deal of sameness in the book. 

The young schoolmaster regarded himself as a 
remarkably well-read man. He plumed himself on 
his useful reading. He imagined that he derived 
from books as much benefit as any person what- 
ever. Yet he no more assimilated his crude acqui- 
sitions than the mill-stone assimilates the corn it 
grinds. The corn wears out the mill-stone, giving 
it a mealy smell ; the books wore out the young 
man, imparting to him only the faintest odor of 
literary culture. 

Reading, if it answers its true end, nourishes and 
vitalizes the mind ; it goes into the intellectual cir- 
culation, and is secreted in new forms of thought, 
imagination, and emotion. It quickens the percep- 
tive powers and deepens the reflective. He who 
reads profitably absorbs from his book such ideas 
and such use of language as are adapted to his 
capacity and want. He reads actively, consciously: 
every increment of knowledge falls into its place 
and becomes usable. The more facts he accumu- 
lates, the better does he see the value and bearings 
of each. 

The reader who speaks or writes may unknowingly 
appropriate the ideas and even the sentences of 
his favorite books. It sometimes happens that 



98 ESSAYS 

what one has read in his youth and forgotten 
comes back by some subtle association, rising in the 
mature mind as if formed there. No writer alto- 
gether avoids betraying the dominant influence of 
the books that educate him. The tendency to imi- 
tate that which we strongly admire is almost irre- 
sistible. Carlyle is original to a fault, — defiantly 
original, — and yet critics say Richter's style reap- 
pears in Herr Teufeldrockh. Originality of lan- 
guage does not consist in artful arrangement of 
words, much less in paraphrase. It depends upon 
the organic structure of the idea expressed, and 
upon the form in which that idea figures itself on 
the mirror of conception. The mode of expression 
is dictated at once by the commanding thought 
itself. Seneca says, " Great thought must have 
suitable expression ; and there ought to be a kind 
of transport in the one to answer to the other." 
Perhaps a man's most original thoughts are those 
he is least conscious of evolving. As dead, struc- 
tureless chyle becomes living, cellular blood, through 
the operation of biological causes, so knowledge 
changes to thought — originality is the vitalization 
of the mind's food ; it is the last process of mental 
digestion. 

Literary history does not show that invention 
flags as erudition advances. On the contrary, the 
great writers have been, generally, great readers. 
Rabelais, Cervantes, Montaigne, — men of their class 
. — feed themselves on books. 



BOOKS AND READING 99 

To understand an author, we must understand 
more than his words. We. must seize the spirit 
of his thought. His words are the best vehicles 
the writer could command to carry to us his mean- 
ing. But be sure, no thinker ever was satisfied with 
the words he uses. Days of thinking brought to 
the printed page one or two sentences. Reading 
those sentences, we may be provoked or allured to 
other days of thinking. The ability to think is the 
measure of our natural capacity with the effects of 
education superadded. To read much and think 
little may weaken the mind, not strengthen it. You 
cannot always have a book to read, or a companion 
to talk with ; but you can think without book or 
companion, by daylight or in darkness, with or with- 
out the aid of the senses. The mind takes up no 
room in a travelling-bag, and yet it holds the world 
and all. It holds the thinking apparatus. 

The book that stimulates and enlightens Julius 
may prove intolerable to Felix. Lady Jane Grey 
likes Plato, Matthew Arnold likes Burke, Ruskin 
likes Coventry Patmore. Beecher declares that for 
twenty years Herbert Spencer's works had been 
" meat and bread " to him. Macaulay, a gormand 
of books, praises many, but places the seventh book 
of Thucydides above all others. He calls it "the iie 
plus ultra of human art." Carlyle names the Book 
of Job as the first of literary productions. 

Ruskin says in one of the two charming lectures 
in *' Sesame and Lilies " (a book of diamond lustre 



lOO ESSAYS 

and value), *' And if she can have access to a good 
library of old and classical books, there need be no 
choosing at all ; . . . turn your girl loose into the old- 
library every wet day, and let her alone." 

The formation of a library of standard books in 
every private house would work wonders in educa- 
tion and culture. The presence of books in a house 
is civilizing. The father who provides wholesome 
mental food for his family performs a duty at once 
political, social, and individual. He supports his 
children's souls. /' Fortunate the youth whose days 
and nights are, in part, given to the dignified in- 
fluences of high literature. 



IN THE LIBRARY. 

. . . " Loved associates, chiefs of elder art, 
Teachers of wisdom." — Roscoe. 



Once more the task-imposing sun 
His proud imperious course has run. 
I saw his blood-red ro^-al crown 
Beyond the dreary hills sink down ; 
While from a chariot of cloud, 
Her stormy trumpet sounding loud, 
The Amazonian Night made war 
Against the moon and every star. 



My jealous curtains, drooping, hide 
Repose within from storm outside. 
Rave on, thou wintry tempest ! beat 
The flying snow from street to street; 



BOOKS AND READING Id 

Against the rattling shutter dash, 
And madly buffet window sash ; 
Thy baffled pinions strive in vain 
My still retreat serene to gain. 
A safe redoubt this study chair, 
From arrows of the icy air ; 
My tranquil Argand's yellow ray 
Creates a supernatural day ; 
My Youghiogheny sunshine glows 
Defiance to the boreal snows, 
And, flushing, fills my tropic room 
With rays that make the roses bloom. 

Hence, haggard cares that vex the day, 
Blind aches of head and heart, away ! 
Vague sorrows that the memory haunt, 
Pale ghosts of early griefs, avaunt ! 
Forebodings of disastrous things, 
Ye phantom brood, take wings, take wings ! 
All sordid thoughts of loss or gain, 
Alluring hopes, ambitions vain. 
Delusive dreams — whate'er ye be. 
Depart and leave my spirit free. 
For I would consecrate the hour 
To books and their restoring power ! 

II. 
Here, in my social solitude, 
I make a new beatitude : 
And Blessed are the Books, I say; 
The Muses' harvest sheaves are they; 
They are the vials that contain 
The attar of Time's heart and brain, 
The fragrance of the blossomed hours, 
One drop drained from a hundred flowers ; 
The sacred lanterns that emit 
The light of science, wisdom, wit ; 
The caskets and the shrines that hold 
Thought's diadems and learning's gold ; 



102 ESSAYS 

The full-brimmed beakers whence is quaffed 
Imagination's sparkling draught; 
The living-fountain-heads, where move 
Deep waters of perennial love. 

Enchanted heroes of the pen, 

These books are living souls of men ; 

Awake ! illustrious guests, spellbound, 

Ye sons of genius, laurel crowned. 

Your long, mysterious silence break; 

I conjure you, arouse ! awake ! 

Lo ! from each scroll and massy tome 

The spirits of the masters come ! 

They consecrate my humble home ! 

Immortal sages, seers, and bards ; 

They utter inspiration's words ; 

They whisper meanings manifold 

That printed pages never told ; 

They break the esoteric seal. 

And occult mysteries reveal ; 

My marred ideals they renew ; 

They speak, they sing the good and true ; 

As many stars give one pure light, 

Their diverse messages unite ; 

Me to my fate they reconcile. 

And prove life worth the living, while 

Their lofty faith and converse high 

Assure me soul can never die. 



III. 
My Youghiogheny coal aglow 
Illumes my treasures row on row ; 
There Plato stands, half deified ; 
There Burke and Bacon, side by side ; 
Intense Carlyle by Goethe great; 
There Shakespeare grand — for him no mate ; 
Montaigne and white-light Emerson ; 
Cervantes, Spain's immortal one ; 



BOOKS AND READING IO3 

Wit Fielding and French Hugo, too, 

Elected with the Golden Few; 

There genial Dickens, clad in green, 

Beside romantic Scott is seen ; 

Satiric Thackeray is there, 

And introspective Hawthorne rare ; 

The poets, too, a troop divine, 

From honored shelves and alcoves shine; 

And all these precious leaves are mine. 

IV. 

No bookworm blind and cold am I ; 
No friend to grim misanthropy. 
That author best contents my mind 
Who draws me nearest to mankind. 
Not with a scientific greed. 
For store of useful facts I read ; 
Not with a pedant's pride, to know 
That I my ample lore may show ; 
Not with a worldling's lust of gain, 
To gather gold by moil of brain ; 
Not with the critic's art, to scan. 
And praise or blame because I can ; — 
Not do I pore for ends like these ; 
I read my books myself to please. 
The wise King Solomon, I wis. 
Said ne'er a sager thing than this : 
"Eat honey, thou, for it is good." 
Sweet reading is a dainty food ; 
Good honey is my book to me — 
My author is good honey bee ; 
Good honey, and because 'tis sweet, 
That is the reason why I eat. 



Reposing in my charmed chair, 
I exorcise the demon Care ; 
All yesterdays are past and gone. 
And never did to-morrow dawn ; 



104 ESSAYS 

Is not this moment infinite ? 

Hei'e, now, immortal do I sit. 

Without is black December night ; 

Within is summer warmth and light; 

I bend my fond, contented looks 

On glimmering titles of my books, 

As from the shelves they shine to me 

In mute and dreamy sympathy. 

" We are all here," they seem to say, 

" Not comrades of a fleeting day. 

But friends, unalienable, old, 

Yet young forever, and warm-souled." 

My soul, exalted, answers, " Yes, 

Ye are the sons of blessedness." 

I find upon the lettered page 

More than the fabled Golden Age, 

More than did Jove's symposia yield 

To Lucian in the Elysian Field, 

For all the best that men have thought 

Or hoped or dreamed, have letters caught, 

And God's own revelations shine 

From holy books in words divine. 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES IO5 



VIII 

UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 

I. STRAY THOUGHTS 

Many teachers of morality destroy the good effect 
of judicious counsel by too much talk, as a chemical 
precipitate is re-dissolved in an excess of the precip- 



Repression is sometimes better than expansion. 
A rose is but a crowded cluster of repressed leaves. 



Wild fruits lose an exquisite flavor by the garden 
culture which causes them to become large and beau- 
tiful. So the mind may lose agreeable qualities by 
the process of education. 



In burning delicate pottery the utmost care is 
taken to regulate the temperature of the oven, as 
excess or insufficiency of heat ruins the ware. Simi- 
larly, the nicest judgment is requisite in disciplining 
sensitive children, for one may injure their very 
nature by too much or too little severity. Virgil 
says the same fire that makes soft clay hard makes 
hard wax soft. 



I06 ESSAYS 

A successful fruit-grower was asked how it hap- 
pened that he always obtained an abundant crop of 
peaches while his neighbors, with apparently better 
facilities, so often failed to raise even half a crop, 
and never got superior fruit. He replied : '* I know 
my trees ; they tell me what they want ; I have a 
special interest in every twig of this orchard. A 
peach-tree won't produce unless it is loved." 

If love brings forth the best that is in trees, will 
it not much more develop the best that is in men ? 



Some people practise their virtues so viciously 
that it is a pity they have virtues to abuse. 



Books are called the tools of teachers. Teachers 
may become the tools of books. 



Children are pleased with gay prints of high color 
and with the discordant, loud melody of the grind- 
organ. Gairish, gaudy hues and noisy sounds pain 
the cultivated senses. As the eye and ear learn to 
discriminate between harmony and inharmony, taste 
grows more exacting. In like manner mental train- 
ing brings the mind to desire truth and enables it to 
detect and abhor error. The scholar demands cohe- 
rence and logical connection of words. To the 
trained thinker a bad argument jars on the mind as 
an instrument out of tune distresses the ear. Educa- 



tJNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 107 

tion puts the mind in tune so that its strings answer 
to corresponding chords of truth. 



It would seem reasonable that the teacher should 
be recognized everywhere as the highest authority 
on the subject of education, and that he should dic- 
tate how his pupils ought to be trained. In Germany 
that parent is considered impertinent who advises 
the professor in regard to pedagogical matters. In 
this country everybody considers it anybody's busi- 
ness to teach the teacher. Editors, clergymen, doc- 
tors, lawyers, merchants, mechanics, farmers, — all 
know how to teach school better than the school- 
master does, and they all interfere, injudiciously, 
with his art. There should be co-operation between 
parent and teacher, but the school must proceed 
on general principles to which the individuality of 
families and single pupils must conform. 



Wherefore fret if heedless Tom 
Loses half the words I sav ? 

What if sometimes dreamy Ben 
Fails to learn his algebra ? 

Culture is not everything ; 

Farmers must not always hoe ; 
Undisturbed the roots of mind 

Oftentimes the deepest grow. 

Action is not always gain ; 

Crystals form when left at rest ; 
What the teacher leaves undone 

May perchance be done the best. 



lOS ESSAYS 



Haply inattentive Tom 

Thinks a thought beyond my reach 
Peradventure Ben may dream 

More than algebra can teach. 



Purer than the mountahi dew, whiter than sky- 
born flakes be the atmosphere of education. The 
sentiment and the language of instruction should be 
such that no blot or stain can touch the soul of the 
pupil. A holy light should pervade tuition. Might 
not boys and girls grow up with principles so sensi- 
tive to truth and purity that they would be forever 
self-shielded from the false and the foul ? 

They are benefactors of youth who use pure words. 
"Is not mine host a witty man.?" asks the hunter 
of the fisherman in Walton's "Angler." The fisher- 
man replies, "To speak truly, he is not to me a good 
companion. A companion that feasts his company 
with wit and mirth, and leaves out the sin which is 
usually mixed with them, /le is the man. And let me 
tell you, good company and good discourse are the very 
sinews of virtue. But for sucJi discourse as we heard 
last night, it infects others.'' 

Whatever is obscene, vulgar, degrading, or of 
questionable delicacy, infects the young. Blood poi- 
soning is not so perilous as mind poisoning. What 
germicide can destroy the microbe vile imagination } 
We know temptation must be met, nevertheless," lead 
us not into temptation." The school is the temple 
of safety. Within its sacred walls we are delivered 
from evil. There only good counsels and examples 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES IO9 

and books and pictures and symbols should come. 
There every low desire and every tainted fancy 
should feel rebuked. There purity, like a guardian 
angel, should abide. 

We wish our sons and daughters to become supe- 
rior men and women, and hope that school education 
will contribute to that result. Therefore parents 
confide in teachers with anxious trust. The teacher 
stands in the parents' place, and has been called the 
parent of his pupil's mind. 

Yet the teacher's responsibility is much limited ; 
he is, at most, but minister plenipotentiary, not chief 
ruler. Seven-eighths of the school-boy's hours are 
disposed of by direct will of parents — only one- 
eighth under the immediate control of the teacher. 
No amount of vigilance can secure the true ends of 
education without vigilant home rule at the hearth- 
stone. It is hardly to be expected that any teacher 
can maintain a stronger influence with his pupil than 
an equally intelligent and conscientious parent can 
exercise over his own child. ^Mother, father, school- 
master — these are the educational trinity,/ — these, 
in complete co-operation, are the agents of Provi- 
dence to train the child. 

The schooling which the young obtain out of 
school is no less essential than that received on the 
recitation benches. Bodily exercise and deportment ; 
skill in work and play ; walking, riding, rowing, 
swimming, dancing; public amusements, such as the 



no ESSAYS 

theatre, the concert, and the museum afford ; famil- 
iarity with social usages ; conversation ; general read- 
ing; travel, — these are branches of useful education, 
quite as important as the contents of text-books. 
Deprived of such schooling out of school, the mere 
student of books is not prepared to enjoy himself or 
to perform his duties. The teacher who disparages 
these extra accomplishments forgets the breadth of 
life. The parent mistakes the true relations of 
things when he undervalues the worth and dignity 
of school-training, and subordinates solid learning to 
superficial accomplishments. There should be har- 
mony between what is done outside and what is 
done inside the seminary walls. Each set of tasks 
and recreations should have its bounds, so as not to 
trench on another set. 

Because its time is limited and its authority cur- 
tailed by many outside influences, a school, to be 
efficient, must be rigorous. The teacher needs econo- 
mize his opportunity, and use his five or six hours a 
day with systematic efficiency. He knows that it is 
not possible for any one to acquire mental strength 
or accuracy, or to secure thorough knowledge of any 
sort, without concentration and continuity of effort. 
No matter how smart a boy may be, he acquires 
scholarship only by steadfast devotion to study, from 
day to day, week to week, year to year. No matter 
how able his parents, the heir does not inherit his 
A B C's. Stuart Mill says truly, that "the children 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES III 

of energetic parents frequently grow up unenergetic, 
because they lean on their parents and the parents 
are energetic for them." How gladly the father 
marks in his children every indication that they will 
some time be able to fight the battle of life unaided, 
if need be ; and yet indulgence often robs the loved 
boy and the idolized girl of the weapon that alone 
makes success possible — self-reliance. Relaxation 
is necessary ; but there should be no break in general 
purpose, no cooling of interest, no dissipation of 
force. To suppose that teachers or schools can 
impart a good education to a boy who scatters his 
energy by idleness or other vice is as absurd as to 
expect a plant to thrive that is pulled up by the roots 
every night, though carefully reset every morning. 
The wisest conservation of force is the conservation 
of brain force. If the boy squanders himself, be- 
coming the slave of his own feebleness, no outside 
strength can save him. Why do we control our 
children at all if it is not to invest them with self- 
control ? The restraints of school are like the stake 
that holds up a young tree that it may grow strong 
and straight. 

I conceive of a school in which the motives, 
ambitions, and conduct are tuned to the same key 
and play together the melody of reciprocal service and 
good will. The teachers are exacting, but kind and 
just ; the pupils docile, eager, persistent ; the parents 
unremitting in their intellectual and moral support. 
Believing knowledge to be, as the Bible says, '' more 



112 ESSAYS 

precious than rubies," the learners will toil and strive 
for knowledge ; will collect mental treasures and wish 
to become millionnaires of thought. Imbued with the 
sincerest sentiment of honor and purity, they will 
respond with quick enthusiasm to every generous 
and heroic idea. 



2. WOMAN S RIGHTS. 

• Rights spring from native powers, brute or human, 

And vary as the powers rise or fall ; 

The flying angels and the worms that crawl 
Have meted rights. The liberties of woman, 

Of man, of seraph, with their longings, grow. 

Our brain and heart are torches to illumine 

The path of duty ; by their inner glow 

We ken the way we should have right to go. 
He lives the best whose faculties are free 

To do, and think, and feel, as God designed, 

Who made the mortal members and the mind. 
Each sex best knows its nature's mystery. 

Most feminine is she whose free-winged soul 

Feels no constraint except Divine control. 

3. PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. 

One of the sublimest thoughts of Carlyle is that 
every day is the confluence of two eternities, the 
infinite past and the infinite future. That man nar- 
rows the scope of his existence who is concerned only 
with things local and temporary. The far distant 
and the long past may be more important to him 
than the present and what he is doing in it. How 
the wind is blowing a thousand miles away forewarns 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES II 3 

the sailor to cast anchor or to set sail. What is 
going on in Europe or Asia, in politics or in society, 
may affect my happiness to-morrow. What went on 
in Egypt, or India, or Palestine ages ago, trans- 
mitted through the lives of nations and of men, and 
through history, may control the thoughts and events 
of to-day. The stream of influences flowing from 
the past indicates what the tendency of the future 
may be. Realizing what has been accomplished 
towards civilization, and by what means, the indi- 
vidual man may order his life according to knowledge, 
and move forward with some assurance of making a 
real advance. He will know that the passing is the 
fruitage of the past, and will believe that he can 
plant the future now. 

4. PROGRESS OF CIVlClZATION. 

Much has been accomplished within the past cen- 
tury for human amelioration. The average length 
of man's life has been increased by better sanitary 
conditions. The material comforts of living have 
multiplied beyond conception. What ancient king- 
could command such powerful and willing slaves as 
every common citizen now calls to his service — 
steam and electricity. Steam carries me around the 
world ; lightning lights my candle. But what are the 
triumphs of material discovery and invention com- 
pared with the moral conquests and products of the 
century .'* Fetters have fallen from millions of slaves ; 
the wheels, keels, and wires of commerce mix up the 



114 ESSAYS 

interests of mankind and create a cosmopolitan sen- 
timent of friendliness ; the rights of suffrage have 
been greatly extended, and the sovereignty of the 
majority has been conceded without depriving mi^ 
norities of just representation. Persecution in its 
grosser forms has ceased, and religious toleration, 
like sunshine, has melted the frosts of bigotry. 

5. USE OF THE IDEAL. 

When Thomas More wrote " Utopia " his con- 
temporaries thought him a dreamer. He was not a 
dreamer, but a seer, and the vision he saw and 
pictured in words succeeding generations beheld 
materialized in beneficent institutions. Like an 
architect's drawing, the book furnished a working- 
plan, by which political and social life in England 
built itself a new house. If More had not pro- 
jected his speculative system on the imagination of 
readers, the reforms he desired might not so soon 
have been realized. Forever the conception of a 
better state leads men to practical endeavors to 
improve the existing condition of things. Said 
Fichte, " The actual must be judged by the ideal." 
Compelled to live among things as they are, man 
grows stronger and more helpful by drawing inspira- 
tion from things as they ought to be. The teacher 
who is content with things as they are, and does not 
see what might be and ought to be and labor for it 
always, is dead and ready for burial. 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES II5 

6. COMBINATIONS VS. INDIVIDUALS. 

The present era of combinations does not indicate 
the final extinction of individual influence ; it fore- 
casts the approach of a day of universal concession to 
the natural rights of each and all. Individuals com- 
bine and organize class interests for the remote 
object of liberating the individual from class oppres- 
sion. When the battles are won, the regiments will 
disband, and the privates will go each to his legiti- 
mate place. How happy that condition of society in 
which every person will count for what he is worth, 
and will estimate his fellows at their full value ! 
Honor will go to whom honor is due, and blame will 
fall upon the wrong -doer. No man will be mis- 
placed or without a place. Special aptitudes will be 
stimulated by generous emulation, and the diverse 
energies of the race will be utilized for the common 
good. 

7. A COLLECTION OF MEN. 

Practical men are aware that success in life de- 
pends upon a knowledge of human nature. The 
world is not unlike a menagerie, and the man of the 
world makes it a profit and a pleasure to see, not 
only the elephant, but all the living wonders on 
exhibition. Let us pass into the big tent and hear 
the lion roar, the hyena howl, the .eagle scream, the 
magpie chatter, the donkey bray, and the fox bark. 
Having seen the typical animals, it will not be amiss 



Il6 ESSAYS 

to enter the side-shows and look upon the mon- 
strosities. 

We make but one voyage on the Ship of Time — 
why not become acquainted with our fellow-passen- 
gers ? The excursion is free — who has more right 
on deck than yourself ? He lives most who has 
most to do with mankind. The science of human 
nature is best learned by the study of representative 
men — good and bad. There are specialists who 
delight in collecting birds' eggs, or postage stamps, 
or buttons. Mark Twain made a collection of echoes, 
and he is not the only author who has done that. A 
collection of photographs is valuable, for it brings to 
the eye the image of men's faces ; a library is better, 
for it gives portraits of men's minds ; but, best of all, 
is a collection of men and women — a choice assort- 
ment of fine specimens gathered by observation, and 
classified in the glass-case of memory, for reference 
and instruction. Only in gathering such a noble 
cabinet, the student of human nature must not fail 
to carry with him what Goethe calls the Three Rev- 
erences ; namely, reverence for that which is below 
us, for that which is around us, for that which is 
above. 

8. EDUCATION OUT OF SCHOOL. 

Teachers are the radical reformers of political and 
social abuses. They are the builders of permanent 
nations. But the education of schools is not the 
only education that life in a democratic state affords. 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES II/ 

The citizen of a republic feels himself really a part 
of a majestic system, and is conscious that his own 
life, liberty, and happiness are bound up in the bun- 
dle of the common destiny. Hence he learns to 
respect institutions more than rulers. He will criti- 
cise his senator, his judge, his priest; but he believes 
in law, justice, and religion, and will not permit these 
to be slighted. He fights, for the Constitution. The 
Declaration of Independence is not a ''glittering gen- 
erality " to him. The school system, the press, the 
ballot-box — these he holds sacred. Nor does the 
existence of humbug, fraud, and corruption prove 
that sincerity, honesty, and purity are slumbering. 
The prevailing sentiment is right ; the general con- 
science is true. 

The free mingling of all elements, possible only 
in a democracy, tends not to level the mass down, 
but to level it up. Intelligence, morality — these are 
qualities that benefit all. It is good for the refined 
gentleman and for the rude laborer that they discuss 
together the questions of the day. When all classes 
become acquainted they agree better. 

Just after the last presidential election, before the 
returns were in, and while the whole country was 
waiting with anxious excitement to learn who would 
be president, two little boys were observed on a 
by-street in Cincinnati, talking together earnestly. 
One was a colored lad, ragged and pathetically small ; 
the other a sturdy white urchin, neatly dressed, and 
with the air of one born in a stone-front house. Said 



Il8 ESSAYS 

the white boy to the dark, '' What is the news ? " 
"We sha'n't know anything for certain," was the 
reply, "until six o'clock." — "Sha'n't we? Then, 
Charley, meet me here at just six, for I want to know 
all about it!" The little "nigger" promised, and 
the two young Americans separated. 

Here was an instance, sublimely simple, of the 
workings of democratic institutions ; of the reaction 
of mind upon mind in the beginning place of vote- 
making. So long as Charley meets his brother baby 
at just six o'clock to inquire all about the state of 
politics, the republic will be safe. This is popular 
education. 



9. THE OLD-FASHIONED ELOCUTIONIST. 

The old-fashioned elocutionist culminated about 
the time of the civil war, and since then he has 
gradually lost public favor. The species has declined, 
though individuals of it are still to be seen rocketing 
in the oratorial sky. 

In a stray volume of the Philadelphia Port Folio 
for the year 18 15, we read that Mr. Ogilvie of South 
Carolina College had recently established " a new 
branch of education," which was no other than a 
course on oratory, and that he had "opened for him- 
self a most splendid and useful career." The trus- 
tees of the college testified over their official signatures 
that there were none among Mr. Ogilvie's pupils 
*'who could not recite with justness and intelligence; 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES I IQ 

and some seemed to have made considerable advances 
in the higher walks of impassioned eloquence." 

We will not venture to assume that Mr. Ogilvie 
was the founder of an actually " new branch of 
education," and the father of American elocutionists. 
But since he figured as long ago as 1815, we may 
safely conclude that the old-fashioned elocutionists 
have been illustrating the splendors of " impassioned 
eloquence " for nearly a hundred years in this New 
World. 

''Impassioned eloquence," both in writing and 
speech, was the glory of the period beginning with 
the close of the Second War of Independence. The 
school of "our eloquent ancestors" was the political 
press, the stump, and the revival pulpit. 

" Impassioned eloquence " by degrees passed from 
the domain of serious persuasion to the stage, the 
lyceum, and the academy. It became ornamental 
rather than useful. Fourth of July oratory retained 
a sort of quasi meaning for a long time, and even 
yet we occasionally see the spread eagle soar from 
a rustic platform and flap his broad wings in the high 
altitude of sublime noise. 

Well do we remember the elocutionist of our 
school-days — his name was legion; — we speak of 
the species, not of any particular specimens. He 
it was, wonderful-voiced, many-sounding man, who 
amazed our youthful ears by rending, not rendering, 
" Collins's Ode to the Passions," '' Rienzi's Address 
to the Romans," and " Catiline's Defiance." Me- 



I20 ESSAYS 

thinks I see him now in the act of clinching his fist 
at the imaginary Conscript Fathers and exclaiming, 

" He dares not touch a hair of Catiline." 

"Parrhasius " was in his fierce repertory, and 
who that once saw and heard could ever forget the 
unqualified delight that the lively artist took in 
commanding his attendant to — 

"Press down the poisoned links into his flesh, 
And tear agape those healing wounds afresh ! " 

The impression upon small boys was ineradicable. 
Every urchin old enough to articulate was saying, in 
such sepulchral tones as he could simulate, — 

" Gods ! if I could but paint a dying groan ! " 

The recollection of one other *' piece " of declam- 
atory " impassioned eloquence " comes back like 
Banquo's ghost. 'Twas called '' The Seminole's Defi- 
ance," a great favorite with the old-fashioned elocu- 
tionist, and with nervous boys. By the way, how 
curious the fact that it is not the big, rough, savage 
boy who affects the terrific style, but rather the pale 
and slender fellow. The "Seminole's Defiance" 
is ferocious from beginning to end, but the closing 
verse was the climax and the crucial test of the 
orator's art. It runs thus : — 

" I ne'er will ask for quarter, 
I ne'er will be your slave, 
But I'll swim the sea of slaughter 
'Till I sink beneath its wave ! " 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 121 

Language cannot convey an adequate conception 
of the gesticular strokes with which our old teacher 
plunged into the "* sea of slaughter," as though that 
crimson flood actually rolled before us ; much less 
can words reproduce the exaggerated gurgle with 
which he sank beneath the wave. 

The old-fashioned elocutionist rather disdained 
humor, regarding it as frivolous and undignified. 
Blood was his chosen element. Yet often he resorted 
to the other impassioned fluid — tears. A throng 
of recollections clamor to be told, but we forbear. 
Suffice it to say our old friend's pathos was more 
harrowing than his tragedy. There zcurs a sort of 
grim pleasure in listening to his murders and defi- 
ances and death-rattles, but his tender speeches 
gave unmitigated misery to the audience. Yet, 
paradoxical as it seems, the popular taste was such 
that we enjoyed the pain. 

Perhaps the most remarkable quality of old-fash- 
ioned " impassioned eloquence " was its parlia- 
mentary or senatorial element. The elocutionist 
considered it his bounden duty to instruct his audi- 
ence in the principles and practice of parliamentary 
persuasion. As a rule, he preferred perorations 
rather than plain argument. Pitt, Burke, and Web- 
ster were the models he taught us to imitate, and 
the elocutionist gave brilliant examples of the style 
of those famous orators. Sometimes, also, he dis- 
played samples of the art of Demosthenes or Cicero. 
Randolph, Calhoun, and Clay often appeared before 



122 ESSAYS 

US in the person of our lecturer. Demosthenes, 
Cicero, and Burke were represented as very solemn 
and even pompous. Webster and Pitt rolled their 
R's, and emphasized all the big words, and flourished 
their arms with great energy, and so far forgot their 
dignity in moments of excitement as to beat their 
bosoms and to storm. When it came the turn of Ran- 
dolph, or Clay, or Patrick Henry, to take the floor, 
"impassioned eloquence" found full vent. These 
worthy statesmen were regarded as naturally eloquent ; 
they were fiery and untamed ; they tore every passion 
to tatters ; they ranted like mad men, and when, 
exhausted with vociferation and frantic exercise, 
Randolph or Clay dropped into his chair, the audience 
thundered round after round of applause. 

The recollection of these " elocutionary entertain- 
ments " brings with it a sense of their irresistible 
absurdity. What could be more ludicrous t Imagine 
Burke in the British parliament, or Webster in Con- 
gress, looking, acting, and speaking as the old-fash- 
ioned elocutionist represented him ! Had Clay or 
Calhoun behaved on any public occasion as the pro- 
fessional declaimer used to personate him, his friends 
would have consigned him to the nearest sanitarium. 

In these latter days elocution is more rational. 
Teachers of vocal culture are striving to base their 
art on a natural foundation. The old-fashioned 
elocutionist can no longer please an enlightened 
audience. Perhaps the new-fashioned professor of 
oratory runs to another extreme of refined artificiality, 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES I23 

and has too much to say about the philosophy of 
expression and the subtilities of Delsarte. As the 
"blood-and-thunder " novel of yore has changed into 
the introspective tale of Howells and James, so the 
rant of the stage and the '' spouting " of the "school 
exhibition" are supplanted by realistic acting and 
recitations in a quiet style. 

10. " it's books." 

''It's books." Such was the idiom of our dis- 
trict. The phrase was familiar to my ears in boy- 
hood. Perhaps the expression has become obsolete ; 
maybe it was narrowly provincial and " countryfied." 
I do not know. But I distinctly recollect that, in 
the quiet precincts of old Ridgeville (an Ohio village 
fondly remembered as the scene of my first school- 
going), we used to say ''It's books." We meant by 
the words that the hours of study and recitation had 
begun ; that playtime was over ; that, to use another 
peculiar form of "English as she is spoke," school 
had "took up." 

I recollect pedagogues who used to call in their 
pupils by rapping sharply with a ferule on the 
window-sash, and others who sent messengers to the 
playgrounds to tell us that tt was books. The school- 
master who first used a hand-bell to ring the children 
in from Riley's Woods was regarded as quite a 
magician ; and we fancied that he must be very rich 
to possess a bell. 

On the morning of the first opening of the city 



124 ESSAYS 

schools in autumn, the streets present a lively and 
suggestive picture. The official announcement that 
it will be '' books " on a stated Monday morning in 
September produces a flutter of preparation among 
the school-goers, and no little stir and anxiety among 
the school-senders. The various employments of 
vacation are cut short. The children's wardrobes 
are overhauled, repaired, and replenished. Tommy's 
out-grown suit is fitted, perhaps, to his younger 
brother. Lizzie is supplied with a new dress ; and her 
last fall's hat is done over in the style of the coming 
season. The family talk is of teachers, text-books, 
and grades. The tents of rest are folded, and the 
educational camp buzzes with the sound of prepara- 
tion for another year's active campaign. The antici- 
pated opening day arrives. Then, betimes, the boys 
and girls issue from their places of abode and flock 
together, laden with baskets, satchels, slates, and 
books. The sidewalks are musical with the patter 
of elastic feet. In the bustle and excitement of the 
occasion, most are filled with hope and vivacity. 
Here and there a reluctant urchin, opposed to the 
school system in general, and perhaps personally 
prejudiced against Miss Goad, the kind but firm 
young lady who rules his room, creeps unwillingly 
"and with heavy looks " toward the big brick edifice 
which he considers not the goal, but the gaol, of 
his wishes. An excess of forward-moving energy 
propels the majority, causing the observer to wonder 
at the force stored in young blood. Almost every 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 125 

lad or lass seems to belong to the fittest, having such 
manifest power to survive. Yet the discriminating 
eye may see in the crowd more than one timid, 
shrinking child, to whom the rush and flurry of the 
noisy procession is like the rude bluster of March 
winds to the tender and tremulous violet. At the 
home door stands the mother, her heart following 
with infinite solicitude the darling who this day for 
the first time ventures from the all-protecting en- 
closure of the household walls to enter upon untried 
scenes. Full of pathos to the parent's heart is this 
first day of school. The mother may cry a little in 
the lonely nursery when her baby is out of sight. 
Ah, innocent, ignorant child, rejoicing in her em- 
broidered cloak, proud of her pictorial primer, how 
can she anticipate the realities of the long way that 
.lies before her ! Perhaps she may discover an ap- 
palling difference between home and school ; between 
mother, whose love-kiss yet lingers on her lips, and 
Miss Goad, who sets her to learn the twos in the 
multiplication-table. Even father, undemonstrative 
as he is, betrays some interest in the children's 
movements on opening day ; and he cannot help 
drawing a long breath over his high desk at the 
office, as he recalls to mind the air of his five-year- 
old namesake, who, after breakfast, set off so sturdily 
towards the hill of science, his pocket plethoric of 
tops and strings, his jacket and pants buttoned 
together around the waist. 

It is not the infants- only that interest and amuse 



126 ESSAYS 

the observer on the morning when school begins. 
Not only Minnie in her A B C's, but also 

" Almira in the upper class," 

who studies chemistry, music, and French, and who 
wears her hair in the most outlandish style of the 
extreme mode ; not only little Fred, whose mind, 
yet in the soft cartilage stage, is sorely confused by 
the simplest object lesson, but also Charles Edwin, 
with misty mustache on lip and Latin lexicon in 
hand, with golden charms hangi-ng to his watch- 
chain, and, as he humbly conceives, manly dignity 
stamped on his studious brow. Now roll the private 
seminary omnibuses along, bearing the lilies and 
roses that toil not nor spin ; and the roses and lilies 
bend and nod with peculiar sweetness as they pass 
Charles Edwin by, and that linguistic beau moves 
gracefully on, a taller and happier man. 

Meanwhile the swarms gather and increase in the 
vicinity of the schoolhouses. There assemble the 
children of the people — the rich, the poor — Ameri- 
can, German, Irish ; the robust, the feeble, the beau- 
tiful, the deformed, the intelligent, the stupid, the 
virtuous, the vicious, the children of the people. 
They will be men and women — to-morrow. They 
have come from the privacy of the family to the 
publicity of the school. They have stepped into 
the world. They are weaving the individual threads 
of life into the tissue of society and state. 

The hour strikes, the bells ring out their sum- 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 127 

mons, the multitudes separate into orderly ranks, 
and march to their appointed place. And '' it's 
books." 

II. THE CULTURED SNOB. 

Young Mr. Acme Sweetlight, having completed 
his college course and perhaps European tour, has 
returned home to rest and recuperate. Sweet- 
light is an illustrious example of what education and 
culture may accomplish for a man. He manifests 
his superiority in every way. His dress and de- 
meanor proclaim him finished. Acme has absorbed 
the learning of his times. Any one may see at a 
glance that he is saturated with information and 
intellectual power. 

True, he does not say much, or read much, or do 
much in any sort, to demonstrate his ability ; but he 
looks very much indeed, and what he does utter is 
oracular and final. Acme is a contemplator of other 
men's defects, not a producer. He sits in judgment 
on the words and works of lesser men. He sits 
apart in a region of inaccessible refinement, surveys, 
condemns, but never creates. Perpetual disapproval 
perches at the sensitive corners of Sweetlight's 
mouth. Censure and disparagement are written on 
his classic forehead. Infinite scorn of crudity and 
vulgarity lurks in the exquisite curl of his nose. He 
takes it for granted that anybody who tries to do 
anything is, according to the eternal fitness of things, 
a special target for his cynical arrows. 



128 ESSAYS 

There is that in Acme Sweetlight which may be 
likened to what physicists call potential energy ; he 
seems charged with some mighty force, which, how- 
ever, has not yet vented itself in positive work. 
The man is like a bent bow or a loaded gun, or ever 
so much superheated steam confined in a strong 
boiler. The piston of actual achievement moves not, 
though certain spirts of hissing criticism do escape 
now and then through the safety-valve of speech. 
He smiles disdainfully at false syntax or bad rhetoric, 
though he will not write himself. He goes to the 
lecture and pronounces it a failure ; and he attends 
church occasionally in a condescending mood, but is 
visibly bored by the sermon and excruciated by the 
singing. Doubtless this supreme being can do all 
things better than anything has ever been done. 
Conscious of latent ability, he cares not so far to 
identify himself with the '' rascal multitude " as even 
to set an example. 

12. NATURAL SCIENCE TEACHING IN THE COMMON 
SCHOOLS. 

Children should become acquainted with natural 
objects, as parts of a complete whole, interesting and 
important not only in themselves, but also in their 
relation to other things. A stone-quarry teaches 
more than a cabinet of minerals ; a woodland walk 
more than a Jiorttis siccus ; an ant-hill more than a 
card of beetles displaying their transfixed bodies 
through glass. Collections, classifications, specific 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES 1 29 

and generic names are very useful in their way ; but 
nature and her works are best studied, loved, and 
appreciated in action, — in life, not in death. Even 
the inorganic world has its vital phenomena, — its 
force in action. 

Much better it is for a child to learn crystalography 
by observing the manner in which solids are born of 
liquid solutions, than by looking at a few labelled 
specimens in a dusty box. Plants and animals should 
be seen, if possible, in their native haunts. What 
the beginner most needs is a taste for nature, habits 
of observation, and a method of investigation, — not 
laws, conclusions, scientific categories and results. 
The summing up of facts and final statement of 
principles is the work- of trained thinkers, not of 
unpractised school-children. 

The tyro needs knowledge — abundance of definite 
knowledge. The reason it is so hard to interest boys 
and girls in scientific text-books may be seen, when 
we recollect that these books are mainly summaries 
and general statements, dependent upon a vast accu- 
mulation of facts and experiments, that the boys and 
girls have not witnessed. On the very first page of 
the book the pupil is told that " science is knowl- 
edge reduced to system ; " it is the teacher's duty to 
draw the inference that, without some knowledge to 
begin with, it is absurd to suppose it possible to pos- 
sess any science whatever. Science is not ignorance 
reduced to system. The pupils must be induced to 
take notice of what lies around them, or else all at- 



130 ESSAYS 

tempt to teach principles and laws is hopeless. They 
must study things and their properties, and learn to 
distinguish what is significant in nature from what 
is not. 

Country teachers have peculiar facilities for ac- 
quainting themselves and their pupils with the ma- 
terial of natural science, and they are scarcely 
excusable if they neglect their opportunity. Soils, 
stones, springs, trees, moss, birds, insects, snails, — 
ten thousand objects of interest maybe brought under 
the observation of the farmer's children. Let the 
scholars be induced to study the natural history of 
their own homes. Put into their hands such books 
as Wood's " Selbourne," and ''The Fairy Land of 
Science." Ask them to write compositions about 
familiar natural objects. Take them on excursions. 
Make them realize the significance and worth of the 
familiar. Teach them the use of the eye, the micro- 
scope, — but, above all, the use of their mind. Bring 
them close down to nature that they may feel her 
mysterious life, and catch the spirit of her opera- 
tions. There is a just complaint that scientific 
teaching is apt to be sapless and soulless. It is a 
pity if instruction tends to narrow the pupil's mind, 
— to make him underrate other knowledge than 
that of bare facts, — and to depreciate other than 
scientific culture. 

The practice of amusing children with the curiosi- 
ties of natural history, chemistry, etc., without cre- 
ating correct habits of study, or any real interest in 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES I3I 

the more substantial parts of the subject taught, is 
an evil that besets primary teachers. 

It is easy to interest children in wonders, but minds 
that are habitually aroused by novelty are almost 
sure to lapse into hopeless lethargy when the novelty 
has lost its charm. Many have experienced how 
hard it is to make anything of a class that has had 
the edge of its appetite for study blunted by feeding 
on scientific marvels for a few months. The curiosi- 
ties of botany and zoology, the brilliant experiments 
of chemistry and physics, ought to be distributed 
along the whole course of 'study, and be utilized as a 
gentle and constant stimulus. It is as unwise to ex- 
pect to develop a taste for scientific study by a course 
of highly seasoned, marvellous lectures, as to create 
a healthy desire for plain food by a preliminary diet 
of spice and confectionary. 

Inverting the usual order, I give, as the close of 
this brief sermon, a pregnant text from the scripture 
of J. J. Rousseau, who says " Among the many ad- 
mirable methods taken to abridge the study of the 
sciences, we are in great want of one to make us 
learn them ivitJi effort!' 



13. HOW TO SAY IT. 

The use of language is to set the mind free and 
send it forth that it may influence other minds. The 
mind in print flies around the globe. Words are 
deeds. He who speaks well, or writes well, does 



132 ESSAYS 

service as practical as the sowing of grain, the steer- 
ing of a ship, or the curing of a wound. 

Language is the most potent instrument that 
human power wields. The useful end of intellectual 
education is to learn to think, and the value of 
thought is measured by its adequate expression. 
Therefore teachers should not undervalue "rammar 
and rhetoric. The art of saying, sums up and tests 
all mental acquisitions. '' I know it but can't tell 
it " is the same as ''I possess but cannot use." But 
the use of knowledge is to use. 

Pupils must be trained to put their intelligence 
into the breath of life which awakens the vocal 
chords, and into the ink which talks from the written 
page. Young folks are apt to assume that they can- 
not make composition. It is easy to prove to the 
dullest child that he possesses power to speak and 
write. Take down in shorthand the answers he 
gives to your familiar questions, and you have a lit- 
erary composition. Let the boys and girls translate 
tongue into pen ; let them put down from their 
fingers what just now fell from their lips. How 
teach a child to write sensibly and simply t You had 
better study how to prevent him from losing the tact 
which comes to him naturally. Babies of five are 
often more expert at telling their meanings and feel- 
ings than are the students in the rhetoric class. 
Wonderfully fresh, idiomatic, and succinct is the ora- 
tory of the nursery. How beautiful, direct, and 
graphic the first letters written by boys and girls 



UNCLASSIFIED TRIFLES I33 

who have never been at school ! Children love to 
communicate themselves. They are voluble and 
eloquent. 

The class in composition should be the most inter- 
esting class in school, because it should bring into 
use all the pupils' knowledge, thought, feeling, and 
personality. But the fact is, the composition class, in 
the generality of schools, is abhorred by both teacher 
and pupils. 

We begin wrong, and then go on from bad to worse 
until we have quite spoiled the natural faculty of 
language. We ought not to expect a pupil's school 
composition to be more correct or original than 
his average talk. When he can tell a story grace- 
fully, then he may write it. Teach composition in 
every recitation. Awkward words and half-formed 
thoughts require correction in the geography class as 
much as in the grammar class. But criticism is not 
what is wanted so much as encouragement. Above 
all, do not expect learners to impart what they have 
not received. The substance of the composition is 
the main thing, the form is secondary. Perfection 
of form, elegant phraseology, bookish style, are 
never to be encouraged. The smooth, elegant, con- 
ventional essay, abounding in Latin derivatives, be- 
tokens feebleness and not power. Such finished 
productions are too often praised by teachers on Fri- 
day afternoon. No sham more pitiable than the 
ordinary school composition unless it be the ordinary 
graduating address, which is, indeed, the school 
composition gone to seed. 



134 ESSAYS 

The written words of girls and boys should truly 
represent the habitual, intellectual, and moral status 
of the writer. First compositions should be like 
sketches from nature. They may be sketches from 
nature. Instead of requiring your pupils to write 
the description of a landscape, instruct them to go to 
a certain point and look out upon the scene, taking 
notes of what they see, to use in a genuine composi- 
tion that shall actually portray a landscape. 

Remember the blunt old maxim: "Have some- 
thing to say, — then say it." And the way to say it 
will be found only by practice, practice, practice. 
Write, write, write. Art is long. One cannot learn 
to play the fiddle without years of practice, nor to 
play the harp of language. 

Let us hano^ around the neck of this discourse a 
jewel from Macaulay. The jewel at least is worth 
your attention. Macaulay says, '' The first rule of 
all writing — that rule to which every other is subor- 
dinate — is that the words used by the writer shall 
be such as most fully and precisely convey his mean- 
ing to the great body of his readers. All considera- 
tions about the purity and dignity of style ought to 
bend to this consideration." 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 3$ 



IX 

STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF 
EDUCATION 

I. CONFUCIUS 

" Superior and alone, Confucius stood, 
Who taught that useful science, to be good." 

Pope's Temple of Fame. 

Every process of teaching is suggested by some 
theory of human nature, consciously or unconsciously 
held by the teacher. Every system of education is 
an exponent of its author's philosophy. He who 
holds that the human faculties are essentially noble 
and capable of infinite improvement, will conceive 
profound and liberal schemes of culture; but he 
whose estimate of man's worth and destiny is mean 
will devise correspondingly mean plans of training, 
from which he will neither obtain nor expect great 
results. 

There is no such thing as an uneducated people. 
The most primitive varieties of the human species 
have their notions of nature and existence, and make 
some effort to conform their lives to an ideal standard. 
The effort— even the desire — to become something 
that they think superior to what they are, is a step 
in education. Every influence exerted upon a per- 



136 ESSAYS 

son, from within or without, to cause him to act with 
the definite purpose of increasing his powers, is edu- 
cational. The Indians have in mind a vivid picture 
of the true brave, and their young men are drilled to 
meet the severe exactions of the conception. 

If we could range in a line of historic vision, run- 
ning from the far past to the near present, the educa- 
tional theories of representative men in various 
nations, many vain speculations would be abandoned 
and much wrong practice might be rectified. These 
theories, set forth in their relations to one another, 
would constitute the most valuable part of educa- 
tional history, by showing what has been thought, 
and indicating what has been tried, and with what 
results, in the direction of culture and development. 
The views of the ancients on the educability of man 
are very instructive. What zvas helps to explain 
what is. The roots of the present lie buried deep in 
the past. No person is more likely to be *' behind the 
times " than he who is ignorant of the great ideas 
and achievements of antiquity. 

The industry of numerous investigators is gather- 
ing material upon which to base sound conclusions 
respecting the primitive condition of man and the 
beginnings of civilization. Bold hypotheses on the 
origin of species have pushed tJiat question as far 
back as inquiry can go. How and when man origi- 
nated science has not determined ; but there is a 
general agreement among learned men that Xh.Q place 
of man's origin is Asia, as Moses declared it to be. 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 3/ 

The Orient is the stage upon which the childhood of 
humanity exhibited its first demonstrations of power 
and purpose, — or shall we say, of weakness and 
wavering ? 

We do not know in what precise locality human 
society first existed, or what was the first nation that 
played its part in the world's history. Hundreds and 
thousands of races and tribes may have made their 
entrance and exit prior to the time of those faintly 
revealed to us in the glimmering light of tradition. 
There is no doubt, however, as to which is the most 
ancient of existing nations. China is by far the 
oldest. Authentic records testify the existence of 
Chinese civilization nearly three thousand years ago. 
We have no reliable account of the beginnings of this 
nation. Far as her annals recede, — 

"In the dark backward and abysm of time," — 

China first comes into the range of study, a somewhat 
enlightened country. The condition in which we find 
her, when she first appears in history, justifies the 
presumption that she had been growing for centuries 
before. She possessed social and political institu- 
tions, science, art, and literature, long ere Europe 
emerged from barbarism. 

The word isolating, which philologists use to de- 
scribe languages like the Chinese, may be aptly used 
also to describe the Chinese character. Until re- 
cently, it has been the policy of the Chinese to keep 
aloof from the rest of mankind. The great wall is 



138 ESSAYS 

typical of this isolating tendency, and of Chinese 
stability. The Chinese are the most industrious ot 
people, and yet the nation has made but little progress 
for thousands of years. What Taine says of the schol- 
ars of the fourteenth century may be applied to the 
Chinese : " They seem to be marching, but are merely 
marking time." They do not get on, yet their 
energy is not lost. It is expended in turning the 
endless chain of a gigantic tread-mill. There are 
five hundred millions of them, and each keeps his 
place, and does his prescribed duty. Government, 
institutions, families, individuals, are fitted like watch- 
work into the respective places appropriated to them 
by inexorable law and usage. The myth that the 
world was cut and fashioned by Pvvanka, the first 
man, with a chisel and mallet, symbolizes Chinese 
philosophy and enterprise.^ 

Five classes of duties are recognized by the Chinese 
as of universal obligation, — those between sovereign 
and minister, between father and son, between hus- 
band and wife, between elder brother and younger, 
and between one friend and another. There are, 
also, three virtues considered binding upon all : knowl- 
edge, magnanimity, and energy, or, ''conscience, 
humanity, and moral courage, '' as translated by Maur- 
ice from the French of M. Pauthier, To define and 
enforce these duties and virtues is the object of a great 
part of Chinese literature, especially of the so-called 

1 Confucius and the Chinese Classics, by Rev. A. W. Loomis, San Francisco, 
1867, p. 17. 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I39 

sacred Five Classics and Four Books. Chinese real 
life exhibits the approximate maintenance of these 
relations, as explained by the scholars and enforced 
by the emperor. The duties and virtues enjoined are 
acquired by imitation, and practised in a manner 
rather perfunctory than conscientious. As a neces- 
sary result of this system of external restraints and 
mechanical habits, the Chinese remain as they have 
been for ages. Tylor, in his " Primitive Culture," ^ 
asserts as a general fact that inferior grades of civ- 
ilization are marked by strong conservatism He 
says, — 

"The savage is firmly, obstinately conservative. No man appeals 
with more unhesitating confidence to the great precedent-makers of 
the past; the wisdom of his ancestors can control against the most 
obvious evidence of his own opinions and actions. We listen with 
pity to the rude Indian as he maintains against civilized science and 
experience the authority of his rude forefathers. We smile at the 
Chinese appealing against modern innovation to the golden precepts 
of Confucius, who, in his time, looked back with the same prostrate 
reverence to sages still more ancient, counselling his disciples to fol- 
low the seasons of Hia, to ride in the carriage of Yin, to wear the 
ceremonial cap of Chow." 

This quotation introduces the name, and indicates 
something of the character, of the best exponent of 
Chinese culture — Confucius. No countryman of 
his — Mencius possibly excepted — has ever grown 
to the intellectual and moral stature of this man. 
The world acknowledges him as undoubtedly great ; 
the Chinese regard him as greatest. Tsez Kung, one 
of his prominent followers, declares that the talents 

1 Tylor, Primitive Cultura, Am. Ed., vol. i, p. 156. 



140 ESSAYS 

and virtues of other men are hillocks and mounds 
which may be stepped over, but that Confucius " is 
the sun or moon which it is impossible to step 
over." ^ The celebrated Mencius says, "What I 
wish to do is to learn to be like Confucius." And 
further, " Since there were living men, until now, 
there never was another Confucius." The very word 
Confucius, Latinized from the syllables Kung-fu-tze, 
signifies Kung the Master or Perfect Sage. This 
title is conferred by imperial authority. 

Confucius was born in the year 551 b.c. The Gre- 
cian philosopher Pythagoras was then about thirty 
years old, and the Persian general, Cyrus the Great, 
had just begun his career of glory. The sage was 
descended from illustrious ancestors. His father 
died when Confucius was but three years old, leaving 
his son no patrimony except a precocious intellect 
and a studious disposition. A good mother conducted 
the child's education with care. At the early age of 
nineteen Confucius married. At twenty he was 
appointed ''Keeper of the Stores of Grain," and at 
twenty-one, *' Inspector of Pastures and Flocks," in 
his native place. At twenty-two he began to teach, 
receiving pupils at his own house. Shortly after this 
his mother died. He conducted her obsequies with 
great splendor, thus reviving an old custom, and, in 
further imitation of the ancients, he shut himself 
up and devoted three years to mourning and ethical 

1 This and other following quotations are taken from Dr. Legge's translation of the 
Chinese classics. 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I4I 

studies. Filial duty thus discharged, he resumed 
teaching ; studied music under a renowned master ; 
and began to travel about the empire, examining into 
the condition of the people, and visiting the courts 
of princes. He felt it to be his mission to instruct 
and elevate his generation. We are told that there 
were four things which the master taught — 'Met- 
ters, ethics, devotion of soul, and truthfulness." He 
poured out the cup of knowledge to all who were 
willing to receive, — kings or common subjects. The 
Master said, " From the man bringing his bundle of 
dried flesh for my teaching, upward, I have never 
refused instruction to any one." His fame and name 
spread. His disciples multiplied. Honor and office 
called him from his wanderings home to his native 
state, the kingdom of Loo. He was made succes- 
sively magistrate, assistant superintendent of works, 
and minister of crime. He effected many reforms, 
and acquired vast influence. But the austerity of 
his principles proving too severe for the king, the 
Master finally lost power, and, at the age of fifty-six, 
sadly took his departure from a court at which he 
could be no longer useful. He resumed his journey- 
ings, and continued for thirteen years the old work 
of preceptorial instruction. Poverty and neglect fol- 
lowed him. Once he narrowly escaped assassination. 
Often he suffered for want of food. At last, in his 
old age, he returned once more to Loo, and spent the 
few remaining years of his life quietly and happily, 
editing the sacred books. He died at the age of 
seventv-three. 



142 ESSAYS 

In the Confucian Analects we find the following 
curious record of the moral progress of the sage : — 

"The Master said, At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning. 
At thirty, I stood firm. At forty, I had no doubts. At fifty, I 
knew the decrees of Heaven. At sixty, my ear was an obedient 
organ for the reception of truth. At seventy, I could follow what 
my heart desired without transgressing what was right." 

With- a Carlyle-inspired reverence for heroes, we 
approach this wise man of the East, to pay him such 
homage as his greatness can command. We survey 
him, and find him, indeed, colossal for his age and 
nation. He is extraordinary — but, after all, only 
an extraordinary Chinese. He did not grow freely 
to the form and dimensions of absolute human great- 
ness. Like Pwanka's world, he bears marks of the 
mallet and chisel. He was born into an artificial 
world of inexorable requisitions and restraints. He 
was trained from infancy in accordance with tradi- 
tional usage. The circumstance that his social rank 
was high subjected him the more entirely to the 
exactions of conventional life. His native capacity 
was remarkable, — he had cosmopolitan sympathies ; 
he might have developed an original character even 
in spite of hereditary tendencies, but circumstances 
were always against it. He could only become a 
full-blown and superior specimen of what Chinese 
culture is able to produce from the most promis- 
ing bud. He is the consummate flower of Chinese 
civilization. 

Confucius accepted the theory of government and 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I43 

society that he found riveted in the history and habit 
of his nation. ** There is government," he says, 
'* when the prince is prince, and the minister is 
minister ; when the father is father, and the son is 
son." Believing that the relation of inferiors to 
superiors should be that of the grass to the wind, 
he submitted to the powers that be. Professing 
himself only a lover of learning and a transmitter 
of the wisdom of the ancients, he claimed no origi- 
nality for himself. No one, he thought, could fall 
into error who followed the example of the early 
kings. As by the use of the compass perfect circles 
may be made, so by the imitation of the ancient 
sages may men be made perfect. '* If some years 
were added to my life," said the master, '' I would 
give fifty to the study of the Yih, and then I might 
come to be without great faults." He endeavored 
to walk in the path of the sage, which " embraces 
the three hundred rules of ceremony and the three 
thousand rules of demeanor." By these rules is to 
be understood, not a mere code of etiquette, but an 
elaborate system of conduct defining the highest 
duties of life, civil, social, and moral. Etiquette 
received an ample share of attention. Confucius 
observed the directions of the manners-book with 
scrupulous exactness. His behavior was exceed- 
ingly circumspect. He would not eat his mince- 
meat unless it were properly cut, nor sit upon his 
mat unless it were straight. He practised attitudes 
and gestures suitable to each several occasion of life, 



144 ESSAYS 

and required his nightgown to be half as long again 
as his body. A genius, naturally independent and 
vigorous, thus tethered, reminds us of Gulliver 
bound by the Lilliputians. 

In the struggle to evolve, to rise to a better life, 
Confucius broke many of his bonds. The conscious- 
ness of his mission gave him strength. His itinerant 
life tended to disinthrall him. With profound love 
for humanity, he united a keen consciousness that 
the world is not as good as it might be. He acknowl- 
edges his own defects with humility, and laments the 
degeneracy of others in language that recalls the 
scriptural complaint, " There is none good, no, not 
one." Yet, fully believing that good men have lived, 
and that depraved human nature is capable of self- 
rectification, he taught and admonished not with- 
out faith in the efficacy of his labor. His system is 
essentially moral. 

There are things in Confucius that make one think 
of Plato, as, for instance, his devotion to hard study, 
his eagerness to discover truth, his exaltation of 
sincerity, his delight in music, and his scorn of 
mercenary gain. But he has none of Plato's poetic 
faculty. Like Socrates, he was a great talker, and 
derived illustrations from the commonest objects. 
His disappointment at not being able to bring men 
to accept his' doctrines reminds us of the despondent 
moods of Socrates. "What do you mean," asked 
one of his favorite disciples, *' by saying that no one 
knows you.?" The Master replied, ''I do not mur- 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I45 

mur against Heaven. I do not grumble against men. 
My studies lie low, and my penetration rises high. 
But there is Heaven that knows me." Such is the 
refuge of all great reformers, of whom men say they 
were born before their time. Every earnest soul of 
vast purpose sooner or later enters into the gloom 
of its own peculiar Gethsemane. 

While in some instances Confucius distinctly rec- 
ognized a supreme power, it cannot be said that it 
was his habit to appeal to Heaven, or that the notion 
of a future life had any strong influence over his 
actions. ''To give one's self earnestly to the duties 
due to men, and while respecting spiritual beings to 
keep aloof from them, may be considered wisdom." 
This is Confucian religion. It is eminently practi- 
cal, if not very spiritual. It recognizes man as the 
great object of man's love and service. All men are 
accounted brethren, and owe one another the natural 
debt of benevolence. The sage more than once 
repeats the injunction, " Do not to others as you 
would not wish done to yourself." 

It is natural to suppose that Confucius, holding 
such views as he did of human nature, should reg-ard 
education as an important means of bettering the 
world. This he did. Following the ancients, he 
taught that knowledge is conversion from evil to 
good — that knowledge is the pathway to both wis- 
dom and virtue. According to a vigorous modern 
writer,^ the religious idea is but one factor in the sal- 

1 Dr. I. M. Wise: The Martyrdom of Jesus. 



146 ESSAYS 

vation of the world, and science or culture is the 
other. Many have relied wholly on the first, con- 
temning the other ; but Confucius may be said to 
have regarded knowledge as man's chief concern, 
even to the exclusion of a higher spiritual motive. 
He would redeem mankind by instructing them in 
secular knowledge. Education, in his creed, is a 
means quite adequate to produce a perfect man. 
''It is not easy," he says, "to find a man who has 
learned for three years, without coming to be good." 
Again, " The superior man, while there is anything 
he has not studied, or while, in what he has studied, 
there is anything he cannot understand, will not 
intermit his labor." " Learn as if you could not 
reach your object, and were always fearing, also, lest 
you should lose it." " If a man keeps cherishing his 
old knowledge, so as to be constantly acquiring new, 
he may be a teacher of others." He puts more 
stress on obtaining knowledge, on storing memory, 
than on reflection. " I have been the whole day 
without eating, and the whole night without sleep- 
ing ; — occupied with thinking. It was of no use. 
The better plan is to learn." Yet, in another place, 
he says wisely, " Learning without thought is labor 
lost; thought without learning is perilous." 

Confucius would not confine the benefits of educa- 
tion to a favored few. The doctrine of universal 
brotherhood implied the duty of universal instruc- 
tion. We are told that, " when the master went to 
Wei, Yen Yew acted as the driver of his carriage. 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I47 

The Master observed, ' How numerous are the peo- 
ple!' Yew said, 'Since they are thus numerous, 
what more shall be done for them ? ' — ' Enrich them,' 
was the reply. ' And when they have been enriched 
what more shall be done ? ' The master said, 'Teach 
them.' " He recognized in education an equalizing 
power. "There being instruction, there will be no 
distinction of classes." This proposition is to be 
taken with the mental reservation demanded in the 
modern use of its equivalent ; for Confucius ad- 
mitted a natural difference of capacity, and, indeed, 
classified mankind into higher and lower ranks, 
according to their quickness or slowness in learning. 
The lowest class, he says, are they who are dull and 
stupid and unwilling to learn. 

It is a striking evidence of the sagacity of the 
sage, that he discerned the importance of mental 
prowess as a condition of military success. " To lead 
an uninstructed people to war," he declares, "is to 
throw them away ; " but that if they be competently 
taught for seven yeai^s, they may be safely employed 
as soldiers. 

We cannot resist the temptation to gather here a 
few more of the precepts of China's greatest philos- 
opher. To us they seem suggestive, and of wide 
application ; nor has modern culture grown entirely 
beyond the need of the truths they embody. The 
extracts are from the Analects : the headings are 
ours. 



148 ESSAYS 

Learning like Bnilding a Mound. 

" The prosecution of learning may be compared to 
what may happen in raising a mound. If they want 
but one basket of earth to complete the work, and I 
stop, the stopping is my own work. It may be com- 
pared to throwing down the earth on the level 
ground. Though but one basketful i'S thrown at a 
time, the advancing with it is my own going for- 
ward." 

What is Knoivledge? 

"■ Shall I teach you what knowledge is ? When you 
know a thing to hold that you know it ; and when 
you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not 
know it — this is knowledge." 

False Pride. 

'* A scholar whose mind is set on truth, and who is 
ashamed of bad clothes and bad food, is not fit to be 
discoursed with." 

Whom to teach. 

''The Master said, 'I do not open up the truth to 
one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help 
out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. 
When I have presented one corner of a subject to 
any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, 
I do not repeat my lesson.' " 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I49 

Teaching adapted to the Taught. 
"The Master said, * To those whose talents are 
above mediocrity, the highest subjects may be an- 
nounced. To those whose talents are below medi- 
ocrity, the highest subjects may not be announced.' " 

Hozu Confucius taught. 
''The Master, by orderly method, skilfully leads 
men on. He enlarged my mind with learning, and 
taught me the rudiments of propriety." 

Experience confers Authority. 
" Fan Che requested to be taught husbandry. 
The Master said, ' I am not so good for that as 
an old husbandman.' He requested also to be 
taught gardening, and was answered, ' I am not so 
good for that as an old gardener.' " 

Qualities of the Scholar. 
*' The scholar may not be without breadth of mind 
and vigorous endurance. His burden is heavy and 
his course is long." 

Gi-avity and Instruction. 
" If the scholar be not grave, he will not call forth 
any veneration, and his learning will not be solid." 

Application. 
" The Master said, ' Is it not pleasant to learn 
with a constant perseverance and application .^ ' " 



150 ESSAYS 

Duties of Youth. 
"■ The Master said, ' A youth, when at home, should 
be filial, and abroad, respectful to his elders. He 
should be earnest and truthful. He should overflow 
in love to all, and cultivate the friendship of the good. 
When he has time and opportunity after the perform- 
ance of these things, he should employ them in polite 
studies.' " 

The Scholar's Rest. 
" Let relaxation and enjoyment be found in the 
polite arts." 

Blade, Floiver, and Fruit. 
" There are cases in which the blade springs, but 
the plant does not go on to the flower. There are 
cases where it flowers, but no fruit is subsequently 
produced." 

Failure from Within. 
" When the archer misses the centre of the target, 
he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure 
in himself." 

Virtue. 
" If the will be set on virtue, there will be no prac- 
tice of wickedness." 

Law and Punishment. 
I. "The Master said, * If the people be led by 
laws, and uniformity be sought to be given them by 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I5I 

punishmcjits, they will try to avoid the punishment, 
but have no sense of shame 

2. " * If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought 
to be given them by the rules of propriety, they 
will have the sense of shame, and moreover will 
become good.' " 

Higher Law. 

" Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven, 
it is impossible to be a superior man." 

The Master did not suggest new methods of instruc- 
tion, or lay down an original course of study. He 
only indorsed the scheme given in the Book of Rites, 
and other ancient classics, which it was the crown- 
ing work of his life to edit for the people's use. The 
technical branches taught were reading, writing, arith- 
metic, ceremonies, music, archery, and charioteering. 
At the aofe of seven, children learned to count and 
to distinguish the cardinal points ; at nine, to number 
the days of the month ; at ten, the boys were sent to 
live with teachers who instructed them for about ten 
years, first in numbers and writing, later in music 
and the odes, and lastly in archery and horsemanship. 
Lessons in filial duty and the rules of propriety were 
never intermitted. 

Girls received little or no education of a literary 
kind, but plenty of advice on the duty of submission 
to the other sex. Mothers are honored in China as 
such ; but woman as woman is, and always has been, 



152 ESSAYS 

held in low esteem. Confucius hardly more than 
alludes to the female part of creation. He says 
somewhere, — 

" Of all people, girls and servants are the most difficult to behave 
to. If you are familiar with them, they lose their humility. If you 
maintain a reserve towards them, they are discontented." 

The system of lifelong studentship and competi- 
tive examinations, for which China is famous, though 
not instituted until many centuries after Confucius, 
naturally grew out of his doctrines, and has always 
been sustained by citing them. . . . The sage passed 
from earth nearly twenty-three centuries ago, but 
how vital his influence still is may be learned from 
the following passage taken from a biographical sketch 
by Dr. Legge : — 

" At the present day education is widely diffused throughout China, 
and in all the schools it is Confucius who is taught. . . . The whole 
of the magistracy is thus versed in all that is recorded of the sage 
and in the ancient literature which he preserved. His thoughts are 
familiar to every man in authority, and his character is more or less 
reproduced in him. 

" The official civilians of China, numerous as they are, are but a 
fraction of its students, and the students, or those who make literature 
a profession, are again but a fraction of those who attend school for a 
shorter or longer period. Yet so far as the studies have gone, they 
have been occupied with the Confucian writings. In many school- 
rooms there is a tablet or inscription on the wall, sacred to the sage, 
and every pupil is required, on coming to school on the morning of the 
first and fifteenth of every month, to bow before it the first thing as 
an act of worship. Thus all in China who receive the slightest tinc- 
ture of learning do so at the fountain of Confucius. They learn of 
him and do homage to him at once. . . . During his lifetime he had 
three thousand disciples. Hundreds of millions are his disciples 
now." 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 53 

2. EDUCATION IN ANCIENT GREECE.^ 

The fundamental conception that every child 
belongs to the state, and is destined to a prescribed 
public service, had great influence in suggesting laws 
and shaping institutions in early Greece. This is 
particularly true of Sparta, where the grasp of civic 
power was fastened upon the babe in the nursery, 
and was not withdrawn from the veteran of three- 
score years. Even in the Hellenic democracies per- 
sonal independence was almost swallowed up in the 
duties of citizenship. The conception which the 
Greeks held of right life, the essence of their religion, 
and the spirit of their education, tended to the sup- 
pression of individuality and the promotion of the 
state. The laws of Lycurgus assumed the power and 
glory of Sparta to be the objects for which the Laco- 
nian citizen existed. Military service was the Spar- 
tan's first and greatest duty. Hence military educa- 
tion was the chief concern of the state. Every male 
child born in Sparta was a potential soldier, or nothing. 
The children of the Spartans were subjected to an 
examination soon after birth ; the robust and promis- 
ing were adopted by the family amid festive rejoicings, 
the feeble or deformed were exposed on bleak Tay- 
getus. The barbarous custom of exposing infants 
was legally authorized in all Grecian states excepting 
Thebes. The laws and customs of Athens were 

1 The principal authorities upon which this article is based are Curtius's " History 
of Greece," Becker's " Charicles," and Schmidt's " History of Pedagogics." 



154 ESSAYS 

more liberal and humane than those of Sparta. The 
far-reaching mind of Solon recognized in the generous 
education of youth a guaranty of the growth and per- 
manence of the Attic capital. His laws held fathers 
responsible for the education of their sons, and aimed 
to foster popular culture without subjecting it to 
stringent state control. The Athenian family was 
freer than the Spartan. Individual liberty and the 
prevalence of mental activity made Athens the centre 
of ancient culture. Athens stands for (Greece ; her 
life presents the best results of Hellenic civilization. 
In the better class of Greek families the child, 
when formally accepted by the father, was intrusted 
to the care of a trained nurse, one from Lacedaemon 
being considered best. The nurse suckled her little 
charge, fed him honey, carried him much in the 
open air, dandled him in her arms, and sang him to 
sleep with lullabies. Great pains was taken to insure 
bodily health and symmetry in babyhood. The 
child's body and limbs were shaped with the hands. 
No haste was allowed in teaching children to walk. 
Nurture and growth were superintended with a wise 
moderation that aimed at the sure if slow develop- 
ment of a sound, strong body. The Greeks well 
knew that nature cannot be forced. They let the 
children have a long time and a good time in the 
nursery. Toys were provided in abundance, such as 
rattles, dolls, hoops, tops, and little wagons. Many 
juvenile games were in vogue, one of which was 
much like blindman's buff. The misdemeanors of 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 55 

the nursery were punished by the appropriate ap- 
plication of a slipper or sandal to the young Hellene's 
person. Sometimes the offender was terrified into 
submission by frightful stories corresponding to the 
'* Raw Head and Bloody Bones " of modern times. 
On the other hand, obedience and docility were re- 
warded by copious narratives, usually of a marvellous 
sort, from the rich repertory of fable and myth. Skill 
in story-telling was a chief accomplishment of the 
nurse. At the age of about six, the boys were sepa- 
rated from the girls, put under the care of a peda- 
gogue, and sent to school. The girls received little 
or no education except from their mothers and 
nurses. 

The pedagogue was usually a slave of good char- 
acter and education. ''The democratic atmosphere 
of Athens," says Dr. Curtius, '' was in favor even of 
the unfree class, and to the annoyance of the aristo- 
crats encouraged the cultivation of humane and kindly 
relations between the master and the slave." Polite- 
ness and gracefulness of carriage were particularly 
valued in the pedagogue, who was expected to serve 
as a model of behavior to his charge. It was his 
duty to accompany the boys to and from the school 
and gymnasium, to carry their books and harp, and 
to exercise a general superintendence over their con- 
duct. He gave incidental instruction and advice, 
but took no part in the regular work of the school. 
This was intrusted exclusively to the preceptor. The 
schools were all private. The state never entertained 



156 ESSAYS 

the idea of building schoolhouses, or supporting 
teachers at the public cost. But education was de- 
manded and encouraged by law, and recognized by 
the people as an element of power. Almost all the 
Athenian boys were sent to some sort of school for 
a longer or shorter time, according to the ability of 
their parents. The rich could command the best 
of teachers ; the poor were obliged to accept inferior 
ones. As a rule, the office of preceptor was not in 
high repute. It was regarded as menial, and often 
fell to persons who were thought unfit to make a 
living in any other vocation. 

The elementary Hellenic education was simple in 
kind and method. The art of reading was taught, 
then the pupils were set to learn by heart passages 
from approved poets and moralists. The fables of 
^sop and the poems of Theognis were among the 
text-books used. Homer, however, was the great 
fountain-head of instruction, the source alike of 
knowledge, patriotism, and religion. Next to Homer 
Hesiod furnished the Greek youth with material of 
education. This preliminary instruction was fol- 
lowed by a course including what were regarded as 
the two essential parts of education — gymnastics 
and music. Gymnastics included wrestling, dancing, 
and many athletic and graceful exercises ; also bath- 
ing, and whatever else conduces to perfect health, 
strength, agility, and physical self-control. Sceoda- 
mus says to Ulysses, in the eighth book of the 
Odyssey : — 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 57 

" I think 
Thou must be skilled in games, since there is not 
A glory greater for a man while yet 
He lives on earth than what he hath wrought out, 
By strenuous effort, with his feet and hands." 

Bryant'' s Od. vol. i., p. 1S7. 

Music comprehended not only singing and practice 
upon the harp, but grammar, geography, and mathe- 
matics — in the language of Grote, ''everything per- 
taining to the province of the nine Muses." 

Gymnastics and music, or physical and intellectual 
culture, were inseparably united. The body was 
considered as of equal importance with the soul. 
The sound body was thought essential to the sound 
mind. Curtius gives the following succinct character- 
ization of the Athenian school culture: — 

" Grammar, music, and gymnastics exhausted the circle of teaching, 
the first two of these departments being closely connected with one 
another. For, when the boy had learned to read and write, he read 
the poets; he learnt to declaim them, and with the words appropri- 
ated to himself the wealth of their subject-matter. Reason and feel- 
ing, taste and judgment, were developed by his habituating himself 
more and more to the ideas of poets of high and universal reputation. 
The declamation of poems led to the accompaniment on stringed in- 
struments, and to the accurate acquaintance with the different rhythms. 
The power of the musical art proved its elevating and refining in- 
fluence upon the minds of the young, without the intentional char- 
acter of moral instruction disclosing itself to them." 

3. PLATO AND EDUCATION. 

All Greek culture points to Plato as the ripe result 
of its influence. He is the summing up and embodi- 
ment of the intelligence of his day. He knew all 



158 ESSAYS 

that Athens could hnpart, all the science of the 
Pythagoreans, and all the lore of the Egyptians. He 
knew, and could use what he knew. Plato is the 
greatest name in education, and his dialogues are the 
true point of departure for whoever would trace 
the winding road along which nations and individuals 
have pursued human culture for the last twenty- 
three hundred years. Pedagogy without Plato is like 
a tree without a tap-root. Professor Jowett observes 
that the Republic is the "first treatise on education 
of which Milton and Locke, Rousseau, Jean Paul, and 
Goethe are the legitimate descendants." It is a fact 
curiously illustrative of the dearth of human inge- 
nuity that twenty centuries have added almost nothing 
to our knowledsre of the mind and the rio^ht method 
of its development. 

According to the scanty record which history fur- 
nishes, Plato was born at ^gina, 429 b.c, the year 
in which Pericles died. He lived through a period of 
eighty-one years, and expired, it is said, in the act of 
writing, or, according to another authority, with his 
head pillowed upon some favorite books. He was of 
doubly illustrious blood, his father being a descend- 
ant of Codrus, a Hellenic king, arid his mother a 
relative of Solon, the wise lawgiver. His book-edu- 
cation was supplemented by extensive travel and 
familiar intercourse with the most famous men of 
his time, especially with Socrates, his great teacher. 
How well was he fitted by nature, by study, and by 
experience to comprehend the intellectual and moral 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 59 

condition of the people of Athens, and to show them 
the highway of reform ! He was wise enough to be 
moderate. He saw evil enough, but was no rash in- 
novator. He could wait patiently for the leaven of 
his transforming philosophy to work. It is working 
to-day. Transmitted through centuries and nations, 
it swells and flavors the educational loaf of Germany, 
France, England, and America. 

I/'" What we call our advance ideas in education were 
anticipated by Plato. To the Greeks they seemed 
Utopian dreams and poetic rhapsodies. All of 
Plato's works abound in educational hints and sug- 
gestions ; but the Republic and the Laws contain 
direct discussions on teaching and training, and may 
be considered, as a commentator declares, "theories 
and plans of civic education rather than schemes of 
legislation and details of laws." In his two great 
works Plato develops a philosopher's conception of 
a perfect human society — an ideal commonwealth. 
His scheme of education reaches its grandest propor- 
tions in the Republic, though in the Laws, written 
later, much of practical importance may be found, 
and perhaps a nearer approach to the ordinary 
modern conception of the aims and objects of 
schooling. The materials upon which this article is 
based are drawn mainly from the Republic. 

It is not possible to separate in the Republic what 
belongs purely to Plato from what belongs to the 
prevailing system of education. In building his new 
ship the philosopher would model it somewhat on the 



l6o ESSAYS 

old plan, and would use such of the old timbers as 
were sound and serviceable. The new ship was to 
meet all the useful ends of the old, and to be infi- 
nitely larger and grander. 

As man, in Plato's view, was destined to live for 
the state, his training should fit him for civic duties, 
and it should be prescribed and enforced by the 
state. It was the state's duty to educate the citizen, 
as it was the citizen's duty to serve the state. Edu- 
cation should be compulsory. This was new doctrine. 
Teachers should be maintained at the public cost. 
This was new doctrine. The girls should be edu- 
cated in the same way as the boys, for a woman is 
''but a lesser man." This was new doctrine. Plato 
urged women's rights and duties to an extent that 
would startle Mrs. Livermore. He would have 
women share in all the hardships of life, not except- 
ing war. 

His whole scheme of government and education is 
tinctured with a strong admiration of Spartan severity. 
In the Ideal Republic, the women and children were 
to be in common, and no parent was to know his 
own child. This is not the only Platonic notion -re- 
pugnant to the modern mind. Like Wilhelm Meister, 
we are shocked and saddened at the discovery of a 
defect in a writer whom we honor. But a candid 
recognition of Plato's shortcomings, or of his dijfcr- 
ences from 7cs, is necessary to a correct appreciation 
of his merits. He differs radically from enlightened 
moderns in regard to the relative rank and value of 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION l6l 

men. He adopted the Oriental idea of caste. He 
represented the different classes of men, under the 
symbols, gold, silver, brass, and iron. The husband- 
man must remain a husbandman, the potter a potter. 
He believed in the educability of men, not of man. 
Brass and iron were born to menial stations, — born 
to be governed and used. Gold and silver were by 
nature susceptible of culture, were^ noble, were fit to 
become guardians and rulers of the state. It is not 
strange that with this aristocratic view of society, 
Plato should associate contempt for common people 
and manual labor ; or that he should see nothing 
wrong in the fact that the proportion of slaves to free 
burghers was as twenty to one in Attica. 

Plato's primary conception of a state implies the 
existence of a large number of ignorant, dependent, 
but productive citizens, under the control and direc- 
tion of a few select guardians and rulers of both 
sexes. The guardians are to be soldiers as well as 
civilians. The description of their nurture and 
training constitutes Plato's scheme of education. 
They are to be the offspring of the most perfect 
parents. Their nurture even anticipates birth, and 
prescribes that the conduct of a woman in pregnancy 
should be moderate, gentle, and gracious ; and that 
her physical habits should be such as to secure the 
highest degree of health and vigor in her child. 
The infant's first three years should be exempt from 
fear and pain. Strong, prudent, and intelligent 
nurses ought to be secured. The children require a 



I 62 ESSAYS 

great deal of exercise and amusement ; and they 
should be provided with toys and sports adapted to 
their age. Much stress is laid upon the importance 
of beginning right. Man is potentially a being beau- 
tiful, strong, and good. If the body is healthy from 
the start, if the mind is wisely directed in its first 
motions, and if favorable influence continue, the 
child will inevitably expand into the proportions of 
a right man. The primary education is to give the 
body natural growth, to surround children with all 
good and wholesome stimulations by which they may 
develop into happy youth, as a rose blossoms. Much 
freedom is to be granted in childhood, but not license. 
Respect for parents and elders must be maintained. 
Punishments are sometimes requisite, but should 
never be ignominious, or inflicted in anger. As 
children grow older, they are to be held with a 
tighter rein. ''Of all animals, the boy is the most 
unmanageable, inasmuch as he has the fountain 
of reason in him not yet regulated. He is the 
most insidious, sharp-witted, and insubordinate of 
animals." 

At the age of six the sexes are to be separated, 
and sent to school. And, now, what shall the train- 
ing be } Is there a better than the time-honored 
curriculum, gymnastics for the body, and music or 
literature for the soul } 

Literature is to be taught, not so much as a matter 
of knowledge, as a means of forming correct moral 
principles and mental habits. Tales and poems are 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 163 

to be committed to memory, but only such as con- 
vey a proper lesson. The young and tender mind 
must receive only right impressions. To this end 
mythology should be expurgated. Homer and the 
other poets are to be cleansed of all that encourages 
intemperance and lust, and all that tends to produce 
terror, such as horrible descriptions of Hades. The 
gods are to be represented, not as yielding to the 
passions and vices common to men, but as beings 
altogether pure and noble. Plato's education is 
based on a religious creed at once simple and sub- 
lime. God is good and unchangeable. All tales 
that teach the contrary are to be rejected, no matter 
how great their literary merit. True piety, sound 
morality, must be inculcated, whatever be left 
out. Do not Christian teachers stand rebuked 
by a solemn voice sounding across the lapse of 
twenty hundred years ? With us intellect comes 
first, and morality is only incidental. 

Music proper Plato would teach with reference to 
its effect on character, not as a mere polite accom- 
plishment. The form and quality of music best 
adapted to educate are carefully considered. Words, 
melody, and rhythm are discussed. The only instru- 
ments thought desirable are ** the lyre and the harp for 
the city, and a pipe for the country." The wonderful 
influence of music in regulating the human mind and 
heart is dwelt upon in eloquent strains. 

" Is not this the reason why musical training is so 
powerful, because rhythm and harmony find their way 



164 ESSAYS 

into the secret places of the soul, on which they 
mightily fasten, bearing grace in their movements, 
and making the soul graceful of him who is rightly 
educated, or ungraceful if ill-educated ; and also be- 
cause he who has received this true education of the 
inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions 
or faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, 
while he praises and rejoices over, and receives into 
his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he 
will justly blame and hate the bad, now in the days 
of his youth, even before he is able to know the rea- 
son of the thing ; and when reason comes he will 
recognize and salute her as a friend with whom his 
education has made him long familiar." 

Under gymnastics Plato considers the general care 
of the body, recommending temperance and modera- 
tion in exercise and^diet. Seasoning in food and all 
the ''delicacies of Athenian confectionery" are to 
be avoided. Extreme simplicity in all things is en- 
joined. Simplicity in music "engenders temperance 
of soul ;" in gymnastics, "bodily health." The rightly 
educated person should need neither magistrate nor 
physician. He should be a law to himself as to 
conduct and as to health. Soul-culture should keep 
him from violating the laws of the state ; gymnastics 
should keep him physically well. Respecting the 
relative importance of literature and gymnastics, 
Plato departed from the established opinion of the 
ancients. He was the first to declare the absolute 
superiority of the soul to the body. " The good 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 165 

body," he says, "does not improve the soul, but the 
good soul improves the body. Then if we have edu- 
cated the mind, the minuter care of the body may 
properly be committed to the mind." 

Plato regards studies and exercises as a means and 
not an end. Every faculty exists in embryo in the 
child ; education calls it out. The fewer the methods 
of education, the better, provided they answer the 
purpose of giving body and mind the use of them- 
selves. Quintilian likens the mind to a vessel to be 
filled ; Plato compares it to an eye turned toward 
objects, and thus made sensible of its power of see- 
ing. Education is " not implanting eyes, for they 
exist already, but giving them a right direction, which 
they have not." How beautiful, how elevating this 
conception ! The soul is designed to compass the 
universe in its bright vision. Education is the ad- 
justment of the soul to the eternal verities. Pursu- 
ing his own studies upon this lofty plane, even in the 
glimmering light of ancient science, Plato reached 
the grand generalization that all knowledge is one, — 
a proposition which we are in the habit of regarding 
as of purely modern development. 

The preliminary education we have described is 
interrupted when the pupils arrive at the age of six- 
teen, and are subjected to a trial of practical life. 
When they reach the age of twenty, a selection of 
right natures is to be chosen, for a higher education. 
Sure, brave, fair, and noble persons, of keen and 
ready powers of acquisition and good memory, are 



l66 ESSAYS 

to be selected. These only can become good guard- 
ians. They must be " unwearied, solid men, lovers 
of labor in any line." To these shall be imparted a 
knowledge of arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. 
Plato attached great value to mathematics as devel- 
oping the power of abstract thought. Dialectic was 
next to be studied. This is '' the coping-stone of the 
sciences ; the nature of knowledge can go no further." 
The dialectician is " one" who has a conception of 
the essence of each thing," an abstract true idea 
of justice, truth, beauty, virtue, wisdom. 

Again, education is to be interrupted, and its value 
tested, by application to practical duties. The edu- 
cated man is not to rest satisfied with the contempla- 
tion of his own attainments ; he must descend to the 
aid of his fellows. He should be not only a right 
thinker, but a perfect practical statesman. He must 
not spend all his time in the '' heaven of ideas ; " he 
must serve the state in the ''den of common life." 

At the age of thirty, the best are once more to 
be selected from the best, and put to school once 
more. These choice natures finally become the 
highest rulers, the kings of the state. Only ripe 
philosophers can become kings. They are to devote 
themselves to study for five years. They are to 
review, classify, and sum up all the knowledge here- 
tofore acquired. They are then to devote fifteen 
years to the highest concerns of the state, — to lead 
armies, to govern cities. 

" And when they have reached fifty years of age, 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 167 

th'^n let those who still survive and have distin- 
guished themselves in every deed and in all knowl- 
edge come at last to their consummation. The time 
has now arrived at which they must raise the eye of 
the soul to the universal light which lightens all 
things, and behold the absolute good ; for that is the 
pattern according to which they are to order the 
state and the lives of individuals, and the remainder 
of their own lives also, making philosophy their chief 
pursuit ; but when their turn comes, also toiling at 
politics and ruling for the public good, not as if they 
were doing some great thing, but of necessity ; and 
when they have brought up others like them, and 
left them to be governors of the state, then will they 
depart to the Islands of the Blest, and dwell there ; 
and the city will give them public memorials and 
sacrifices, and honor them, if the Pythian oracle con- 
sent, as demigods, and at any rate, as blessed and 
divine." 

Having led us to this mountain summit of human 
possibility, Plato points, with encouraging cheerful- 
ness, to ultra-mundane heights, and fresh fields of 
endeavor beyond time. Not discouraged at the 
meagre results which the culture of this life returns, 
he makes the best of mortality happy to even begin 
''something which* avails against the day when we 
live again and hold discourse in another existence." 
Plato's scheme of education, as a system, is totally 
inapplicable to our modern wants. Nevertheless, 
separated from the state, or modified as to certain 



l68 ESSAYS 

impracticable features, and broadened at the base, so 
as to embrace the many as well as the few, it might 
ser.ve us a very good purpose — at least as an ideal. 
Modern educational theories are better than ancient, 
chiefly because they are more humane and universal. 
They assume that all men are educable, even crimi- 
nals, mad men, and idiots. Modern society appre- 
ciates brass and iron, and modern education is the 
bold alchemy which transmutes base into noble, and 
noble into nobler still. 

Plato's educational value to us is discovered, not in 
his system, but in particular discussions and sug- 
gestions. He is rich in maxims. He is the father 
of object teaching and kindergartens. In the char- 
acter of Socrates, he paints a model teacher. His 
dialogues are acknowledged to be "the best examples 
of the nature and method of dialectic." Joubert 
says, '' Plato found philosophy made of bricks, and 
made it of gold." I know of no other work so prof- 
itable for the seeker of general culture to peruse as 
Plato. Jowett's translation furnishes us with the 
entire work in clear and beautiful English. So sen- 
sible, so invigorating, so amusing are these splendid 
dialogues, that one involuntarily repeats Emerson's 
question, "Why not educate our young men on this 
book?" 

4. ARISTOTLE AND EDUCATION. 

Aristotle was born nearly four centuries before 
Christ, at Stagira, a city on the coast of Thrace. 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 169 

He came to Athens while yet in his teens, attracted 
by the genius of Plato. He became a disciple of the 
great philosopher, and soon distinguished himself for 
industry and ability. Plato called him the mind of 
the academy. With what a copious flow the stream 
of eloquent instruction must have run from such a 
master to such a pupil ! The enthusiastic teacher will 
credit the tradition which affirms that when Aristotle 
happened to be absent from the lecture, Plato ap- 
peared spiritless, and complained that he spoke to 
deaf auditors. 

Aristotle remained in Athens for about twenty 
years, devoting himself to study and philosophical 
pursuits. Shortly after Plato's death, which occurred 
in 338 B.C., he removed to the Mysian city of Atar- 
neus, where he spent three years at the court of 
Hermias, his friend and fellow-student, — a philos- 
opher king. Hermias, falling into the power of 
the King of Persia, was taken prisoner, sent to Asia, 
and hanged ; and Aristotle fled for safety from Atar- 
neus to the Isle of Lesbos. He was accompanied in 
his flight by Pythias, sister of Hermias, whom he 
had just married, and whom he is said to have loved 
with an extravagant passion. Pythias died within a 
year or two, and Aristotle soon afterward sailed to 
Macedonia, on the invitation of Philip, to undertake 
the education of the prince, afterward Alexander 
the Great. Philip and Aristotle were intimate in 
boyhood, and they continued lifelong friends. Upon 
the birth of Alexander, the king sent the phi- 
losopher this message : — 



lyO ■ ESSAYS 

" Know that a son is born to us. We thank the gods for their 
gift, but especially for bestowing it when Aristotle lives ; assuring 
ourselves, that, educated by you, he will be worthy of us, and worthy 
of inheriting our kingdom." 

Alexander was fourteen years old, and Aristotle 
about forty, when they first came together in the 
relation of pupil and tutor. This relation continued 
for eight years, and we may conjecture that it was of 
no small benefit to Aristotle, as affording prepara- 
tion for his future work. By imparting knowledge 
to others, we establish it in ourselves. What finer 
culture can be imagined than to be taught by Plato, 
and to teach Alexander ! 

Aristotle, ripened by years and a varied experience, 
returned to Athens and established his celebrated 
schools in the Lyceum. This Lyceum was a ''gymna- 
sium in the suburbs, well shaded with trees, near to 
which the soldiers used to exercise, and adorned by 
the Temple of Lycian Apollo, from whose peripaton, 
or walk, Aristotle and his followers were called 
Peripatetics." Aristotle, like other teachers of an- 
tiquity, had two forms of lecture, aa-oatic or esoteric 
and encyclic or exoteric. The acroatic lectures were 
set discourses addressed to his regular pupils, and 
were read in the morning at the Lyceum. The en- 
cyclic discourses were on the same or similar topics 
as the acroatic, but were popular in style, and adapted 
to the general learner. They were truly peripatetic 
lectures or talks, being given informally after supper, 
and while walking about for exercise of body and 



•STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I /I 

relaxation of mind. Only the acroatic treatises have 
come down to us, and they in a mutilated condition. 
For a period of thirteen years ATistotle continued 
to instruct the young men of Athens in the science 
and philosophy of his age. His splendid career 
then drew to a dreary close, as the sun sets in gath- 
ering clouds. Like Socrates, he was accused before 
the Areopagus of irreligion ; like Socrates, he was 
misrepresented and persecuted, and recalling the 
fate of Socrates, he went, self-banished, to Chalcis in 
Euboea, to prevent the Athenians, as he sadly said, 
from committing a second sin against philosophy. 
He died, in Euboea, before the expiration of a year, 
at the age of sixty-three. 

It was inevitable that a man of Aristotle's as- 
sociations and pursuits should consider deeply the 
subject of education. He did so, and some of his 
conclusions on this subject may easily be gathered 
from his preserved writings. There is a severe unity 
binding together his treatises on Ethics and Politics, 
and by reading these works, we learn his conception 
of man and the training that fits man for the highest 
duties and truest happiness. 

According to the ethics of Aristotle, the soul is 
capable of two kinds of virtue, moral and intellectual. 
Moral virtue rules that part of our nature which is 
most closely connected with the body, —the instincts, 
appetites, and passions. It is not innate. It is not 
produced by nature, nor contrary to nature. The 
soul is passive to external influences. Moral virtue 



172 ESSAYS 

is simply habit. It is impressed by examples, by 
acts, by whatever may reach the mind through the 
senses ; and the impression is deepened by practice. 
If the tablet of the child's mind is not strongly in- 
scribed with the characters of moral virtue, vice will 
write possession there. Hence the circumstances 
under which children are brought up are all-impor- 
tant, and parents, families, and states are responsible 
for their education until they reach the years of ac- 
countability. Children are incomplete, and their 
virtue is referable, not to themselves, but to their 
guardians. Adults are free agents, and their con- 
duct should submit to the control of reason. 

Intellectual virtue belongs to that part of our being 
which is farthest removed from the dominion of sense. 
It relates to the powers of thought and contempla- 
tion. The intellect is the noblest thing in man — it 
resembles the divine. Intellectual virtue is not a 
mere habit, like moral virtue, but it *' has its origin 
and increase for the most part from teacJiing,'' and 
requires time and experience for its development. 
It is dependent upon the cultivation of the soul. In- 
tellect grows thriftily only out of a moral soil. 
Goodness predisposes to right reasoning. The object 
of intellectual virtue is the discovery of truth, and 
Aristotle gives it as the distinguishing mark of a 
good or moral man, that ''he can see the truth in 
every case, since he is, as it were, the rule and 
measure of it." This is a re-statement of one of 
Plato's ideas. 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1/3 

The exercise of the virtues, moral and intellectual, 
has for its end the supreme good of the individual 
by bringing him to a condition of almost perfect and 
constant happiness in the delightful contemplation of 
truth. But the individual does not exist for himself 
alone, he exists for the state. *' To discover the good 
of an individual is satisfactory, but to discover that 
of a state is more noble and divine." In Aristotle's 
system, as in Plato's, education is regarded as a pub- 
lic duty. '' No one ought to think that any citizen 
belongs to him in particular, but to the state, and it 
is the natural duty of each part to regard the good of 
the whole." Aristotle's treatise 'on Politics applies 
to the state the same principles that his Ethics ap- 
plies to men. The good citizen is described as not 
essentially different from the virtuous man. Politics, 
which is the greatest of sciences, should direct the 
citizen in all things that tend to a correct life accord- 
ing to a fixed ethical rule. "■ It is evident that laws 
should be laid down for education, and that it should 
be public." The laws must prescribe such regula- 
tions as will secure in the young those habits which 
confirm moral virtue, and predispose the mind to in- 
tellectual pursuits. Further, they must dictate what 
individuals shall learn, and to what extent. 

Aristotle; in Greek fashion, lays much stress upon 
the literal breeding of children, the advantages of 
good stock, fortunate birth, and careful nurture. He 
specifies that infants ought to be fed with abundance 
of milk, without wine, allowed a free motion of the 



1 74 ESSAYS 

limbs, and inured, very early, to the effects of cold. 
Nothing should be taught the child, not even neces- 
sary labor, before he is five years old, lest it should 
prevent his growth. He must exercise freely, how- 
ever, and his plays may be imitations of what he is 
afterward to do as serious work. The conflicts of 
boys are not to be forbidden, since the " struggles of 
the heart, and the compression of the spirits," 
which they produce, develop strength in a peculiar 
manner. 

The mental training of children requires the ut- 
most watchfulness and circumspection on the part of 
nurses, parents, ajid teachers. Aristotle declares 
that *' it does not make a slight, but an important, 
nay, rather, the whole difference," whether children 
are brought up in right habits or not, from the begin- 
ning. First influences are most important, because 
"what we meet with first pleases best." The fables 
and tales told in the nursery should be of a proper 
sort. Children should be kept from the company of 
slaves and all vulgar or Vicious persons. They must 
hear no indecent language, see no obscene pictures 
or statues, or be tempted, in any way, to violate good 
morals or imitate bad manners. They should be 
guarded and tended within the pale of the family 
until they arrive at the age of seven. At that age 
the first period of regular school education should 
begin, to continue for seven years. Another and 
higher course of education, also of seven years' dura- 
tion, should complement the training of boyhood, 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1/5 

and complete the citizen for the highest duties of 
life, both private and pubHc. 

The eighth book of Aristotle's Politics, evidently a 
fragment, treats of the studies suitable to the period 
of boyhood, and embraces many critical remarks on 
prevailing usage among the Greeks. Lacedaemon is 
especially recommended as being the only city in 
which education receives proper attention from the 
state. 

Four branches are named, in the Politics, as com- 
prising the matter which it was customary to teach 
children. These are reading, gymnastics, music, and 
painting. The utility of reading is taken for granted, 
not only for its own sake, but also as a means of ac- 
quiring other sorts of learning. The gymnastic ex- 
ercises of boys, Aristotle thought, should be very 
gentle, as violent exercise is brutalizing, and, also, 
incompatible with study. " It is impossible," says 
our philosopher, ^'for the mind and body to labor at 
the same time, as each labor is productive of con- 
trary evils : the labor of the body preventing the 
progress of the mind, and the mind of the body." 
Painting is recommended as of great and varied use- 
fulness : for instance, to prevent mistakes in buying 
pictures or vases. It should be learned, moreover, 
not merely for its utility, but because it enables one 
to judge of the beauty of the human form. Some 
things are to be learned simply because they are 
noble and liberal ; for " to be always hunting after 
the profitable ill agrees with great and freeborn 



176 ESSAYS 

souls." The subject of music is discussed at consid- 
erable length, and the conclusion reached is, that 
children should be taught to sing and play music of 
a moral and elevating character, principally as a 
means of relaxation and amusement. This course 
of study seems meagre, and it is probable that Aris- 
totle included much more under the term reading than 
we do. 

After the youth shall have arrived at the age of 
fourteen, three years may be specially devoted to 
severe gymnastic exercises. This will leave four 
more years for the completion of education. Aris- 
totle gives no outline of the course to be pursued 
during these four years, but it is safe to infer that he 
would have the young men instructed as he himself 
taught them at the Lyceum. Indeed, the school of 
Aristotle may be regarded as a sort of primitive uni- 
versity, conducted by a single professor. It was the 
Harvard of Athens, where the Stagirite read a con- 
tinuous series of lectures to any and all who were 
seeking a higher education. These lectures were 
upon rhetoric, logic, metaphysics, ethics, politics, 
economics, mathematics, physics, and natural history. 

Aristotle must have exercised a powerful influence 
upon his contemporaries, and especially his pupils. 
He was the first really scientific teacher of whom 
we have any account. His learning was vast. 
Ouintilian refers to him as a prodigy of erudition. 
He gave form and method to studies before shapeless 
and confused. Centuries elapsed without adding 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I // 

anything to the facts he left in natural history, and 
Agassiz says that we must come down to Linnaeus 
before we find systematic zoology taken up where 
Aristotle had left it. His system of logic, according 
to Grote, '' was not only of extraordinary value in 
reference to the processes and controversies of his 
time, but, also, having become insensibly worked 
into the minds of instructed men, has contributed 
much to form what is correct in the habits of modern 
thinking." Burke declares, that of all Aristotle's 
writings, only the treatise on natural philosophy is 
unworthy of him, thus giving indirect testimony of 
the sustained and varied power of the great philoso- 
pher. Another distinguished voucher for Aristotle's 
worth, and that to the modern student, is the late 
Dr. Arnold, who stated that he found the Politics 
of great and direct use to him every day of his life, 
and who further said that he would not consent to 
send his son to a university where he would lose the 
study of ''dear old Tottle." 

A just estimate of Aristotle's system of education 
cannot be made unless we consider to what classes 
the system is intended to apply. In the ideal state, 
depicted in the Politics, the citizens are to be as 
nearly equal as possible, and they are all to be edu- 
cated. The citizens are to be served by slaves. 
Slavery is recognized as the natural condition of a 
portion of mankind. From the hour of their birth 
some are marked out as slaves. This Aristotle em- 
phasizes by frequent repetition. The slave is fated 



178 ESSAYS 

to an abject life. His position is but a step above 
that of the lower animals. He knows that there is 
such a faculty as reason, but he is incapable of using 
it. He has no deliberative faculty. He has a natu- 
ral need of a master, and his condition of servitude 
is right and just. The instruction which he is to 
receive is, of course, that of a menial, and is very 
limited. 

And how about women ? Are they to be educated } 
Aristotle's views are briefly these : The female of 
animals is, as a rule, inferior to the male. Woman 
is inferior to man, and in some respects opposite. 
She is weaker than man in body and in intellect. 
Man should exert a political government over his 
wife. His duties in the family are different from 
hers. It is his business to rule, hers to obey; his to 
acquire subsistence, hers to take care of it ; his to 
deal with the outside world, hers to order the house- 
hold within. As to children, it is no more the 
mothers' duty to rear them than the fathers' to edu- 
cate them. That women should be educated, espe- 
cially for the duties of the marriage relation, Aris- 
totle distinctly affirms ; but he nowhere describes 
the manner or place of their training. We may 
fairly conclude that he would confine their education 
to instruction in the domestic virtues, according to 
the dictation of the "man of the house." 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 79 

5. QUINTILIAN. 

Mommsen, the best authority on Roman education, 
draws a vivid contrast between the Grecian and the 
Roman character, showing the former eager to pro- 
mote individual freedom, and the latter resolute to 
repress it. The historian says that the Roman judg- 
ment " deemed every one a bad citizen who wished 
to be different from his fellows." What culture was 
to Athens, law was to Rome. Hence the supremacy 
of civil power in Rome ; the subordination of people 
to potentate, and of family to father. The Roman 
husband was absolute monarch over wife and child, 
yet wife and child felt no degradation, since they 
regarded their subjection as inevitably fixed by the 
just ruling of the gods. How rigid the fabric of old 
Roman society ! It was as hard and inflexible as a 
suit of iron mail. 

Rights, duties, obligations, being sharply defined, 
— the purpose of life being clearly recognized as 
service to the state directed by law, — education must 
force every child into the path prescribed for him. 
The training of Roman youth, in early times, was 
the shaping of Romans, not the developing of men. 
The Roman must fight — therefore his body was 
inured to hardship. His physical exercises were 
useful rather than graceful. The Roman must obey. 
The oldest Roman school-book was the " Twelve 
Tables," the code of laws. This was committed to 
memory by every boy. The Roman must speak in 



l8o ESSAYS 

public. Correct and forcible delivery was taught in 
every school. 

There is no series of events in history more inter- 
esting or profitable to the student of educational 
philosophy than that embracing the intellectual rela- 
tions of Rome with Greece. Every youth in the 
high school knows that Greece conquered her con- 
querors by the might of culture. Who can resist 
fate ? The Romans at first feared and hated Grecian 
ideas. They dreaded education, regarding it as a 
" disequalizer " of men. They also feared, with good 
reason, the corrupting influence of luxurious Athenian 
life. Cato, the censor, moved in the Roman Senate 
to dismiss certain Greek ambassadors, who, as Milton 
quaintly says, " tooke occasion to give the City a tast 
of their Philosophy." Cato would none of that 
dangerous dynamite. Yet he himself was induced 
to study Greek in his old age ; and his grandson 
spent his last hours reading the divine Plato. The 
Roman conquerors were conquered indeed. Their 
very slaves became their rulers, swaying the sceptre 
of intellectual power. No force can be destroyed. 
The wave of Roman civilization combined with that 
of Grecian, and the cumulated billow rolled on. 

Each nation has a predominant genius. Each 
banks its capital, sooner or later, in the treasury of 
the world's progress. The wealth of Rome was law 
and order. The riches of Athens was culture. 
Modern nations draw interest on the two vast 
funds consolidated. 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION l8l 

Athens elaborated noble systems of education. 
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, created pedagogics for 
Europe. The Roman mind could not improve the 
theories which Grecian philosophy had devised. 
Hence there are no eminent Latin authorities on 
the principles of education. 

Livius Andronicus translated the Odyssey into 
Latin 207 b.c., and this was used as a text-book. 
Greek schoolmasters flocked to Rome. Many were 
purchased as private tutors. A specially elegant 
article of Athenian pedagogue brought as high as 
two hundred thousand sesterces, or about ten thou- 
sand dollars. It became a custom for Roman youth 
to go to distant cities to pursue special studies, as 
modern American students go to London, Paris, or 
Berlin. Rhodes was famous for her schools of 
rhetoric ; Athens, for philosophy ; Alexandria, for 
science. 

Pliny the Younger, in a somewhat celebrated letter 
to Cornelius Tacitus, writes : '' Being lately at Comum, 
the place of my nativity, a young lad, son to one of 
my neighbors, made me a visit. I asked him whether 
he studied rhetoric, and where } He told me he did, 
and at Mediolanum. And why not here } ' Because,' 
said his father, who came with him, 'we have no pro- 
fessors.'" Pliny goes on to say how he argued with 
the boy's father and others to persuade them to 
establish a home college, offering to pay one-third of 
the cost himself. '' Your sons," he says, " will by 
these means receive their education where they re- 



1 82 ESSAYS 

ceived their birth, and be accustomed from their 
infancy to inhabit and affect their native soil. You 
may be able to procure professors of such distin- 
guished abilities that the neighboring towns shall be 
glad to draw their learning from hence ; and as you 
now send your children to foreigners for education, 
may foreigners in their turn flock hither for their 
instruction." ^ 

The so-called *' seven liberal arts " of antiquity were 
grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, arithmetic, geometry, 
astronomy, and music. These became the established 
curriculum. They held their place as the essentials 
of a finished training for hundreds of years, — in 
fact, through the Middle Ages. They are still in- 
cluded as organic to every course of study. 

I said there are no eminent Latin authorities on 
the principles of education. Varro, the most learned 
of the ancient Romans, a correspondent of Cicero 
and a friend of Caesar, wrote treatises on education, 
but they are lost. In his time the Greek system of 
schooling prevailed in Italy. Cicero was deeply 
interested in education, and wrote on the subject. 
He honors the teacher's profession, and expressly 
says, in his egotistic way, " As to whatever service I 
have performed, if I have performed any to the state, 
I came to it after being furnished and adorned with 
knowledge by teachers and learning." 

The man who embodied the principles of Roman- 
ized Grecian education in language was not born 

1 Melmoth's Letters of Pliny. 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 183 

until more than eighty years after Cicero died. 
Thoughts are lived before they are written. As 
Plato came after Pericles, so Quintilian came after 
Augustus. I do not mean to put Quintilian on a 
par with Plato. Quintilian is the best exponent we 
have of Roman education. He is not a great, original 
philosopher, but an excellent summer-up of other 
men's philosophy, — a shrewd, practical, common- 
sense man of much learning and rare powers of 
expression. He was a clever, communicative Roman 
lawyer and teacher, with a '' long " head, a good heart, 
a sharp pen, a keen wit, and a commanding social 
position. 

Quintilian was born at Caluguras on the Ebro 
River, about 40 a.d., some eight years before the 
birth of Juvenal. He removed to Rome, where he 
became a pleader, and afterwards a teacher of oratory. 
He established a school in the eigth year of the reign 
of Domitian, and received a salary of ^4,000 out of 
the public treasury. Moreover, his pupils, many of 
whom were distinguished, must have paid him large 
fees, for he amassed property. Juvenal,- in one of 
his satires, after speaking of the reluctance of fathers 
to pay for their sons' education, and the miserable 
condition of teachers in general, asks, '"' Where, then, 
did Quintilian get money to pay for so many estates.^ 
. . . It is good fortune ! Yes ! Quintilian was in- 
deed lucky, but he is a greater rarity even than a 
white crow." Quintilian spent about twenty years 
in teaching-, and his famous work on the ''Instruction 



184 ESSAYS 

of an Orator" shows on every page evidence of the 
author's experience. The treatise is not a fine-spnn 
theory, l)ut a well-woven record of actual school- 
mastering. The l)()ok is saturated with the life of 
its writer, and this personal element makes it enter- 
taining to this day. I find its charm to hold after 
a second and a third perusal, and I venture to tran- 
scribe a few of the passages that seem worthy of 
study as literature and as pedagogical science. 

While engaged in the composition of his " Insti- 
tutes," Ouintilian was intrusted with the education 
of two of Domitian's grand-nephews. In the intro- 
duction to the sixth book he laments the death of 
his wife and children. He says, '* My youngest son 
dying when he had just passed his fifth year, took 
from me, as it were, the sight of my eyes. . . . Such 
a child, even if he had been the son of a stranger, 
would have won my love. It was the will, too, of 
insidious Fortune, with a view to torture me the 
more severely, that he should show more affection 
for me than for any one else ; that he should prefer 
me to his nurses, to his grandfather who educated 
him, and to all such as gain the love of children at 
that age. ... I then rested for my only hope and 
pleasure on my younger son, my little Ouintilian, and 
he might have sufficed to console me, for he did not 
put forth merely flowers, like the other, but, having 
entered his tenth year, certain well-formed fruits. I 
swear by my own sufferings, by the sorrowful testi- 
mony of my own feelings, by his own shade, the 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 85 

deity that my grief worships, that I discerned in him 
such excellences of mind that the dread of such a 
thunder-stroke might have been felt even from that 
cause, as it lias been generally observed that preco- 
cious maturity is most liable to early death. He had, 
also, every adventitious advantage, agreeableness 
and clearness of voice, sweetness of tone, and a 
peculiar facility of sounding every letter in either 
language, as if he had been born to speak that only. 
But these were still only promising appearances ; he 
had greater qualities, — fortitude, resolution, and 
strength, — to resist pain and fear; for, with what 
courage, with what admiration on the part of his 
physicians, did he endure an illness of eight months ! 
How he did console me at the last ! How, when he 
was losing his senses, and unable to recognize me, 
did he fix his thoughts in delirium only on learning." ^ 

The reader, if he be a man of feeling, will not get 
over this touching passage without emotion ; to me 
the last sentence seems pathetic, in a way of which 
the writer, perhaps, was unconscious, for it suggests 
the probability that the gentle "little Ouintilian " 
may have been educated into eternity. The hardest 
thing for an ambitious father, or an enthusiastic 
preceptor, is to forbear urging a precocious child. 

Quintilian indorsed Plato in the belief that youth 
is the time for toil. He says it is not to be appre- 
hended that boys will suffer from overwork, bodily 

1 This and the extracts which follow are taken from Watson's literal translation 
of Quintilian's Institutes. 



1 86 ESSAYS 

or mental. ''The temper of boys is better able to 
bear labor than that of men." " Yet some relaxation 
is to be allowed to all : not only because there is 
nothing that can bear perpetual labor, but because 
application to learning depends on the will, which 
cannot be forced. Boys, accordingly, when reinvigor- 
ated and refreshed, bring more sprightliness to their 
learning, and a more determined spirit, which for the 
most part spurns compulsion. Nor will play in boys 
displease me ; it is also a sign of vivacity; and I can- 
not expect that he who is dull and spiritless will be 
of an eager disposition in his studies, when he is 
indifferent even to that excitement which is natural 
to his age." While Ouintilian advocates a stalwart 
training, and scorns ''that delicacy of education 
which we call fondness, which weakens all the powers 
of the body and mind," he strongly objects to corporal 
punishment. "That boys should suffer corporal 
punishment," he says, " though it be a received 
custom, I by no means approve ; first, because it is 
a disgrace and a punishment for slaves, and in reality 
an affront ; secondly, because, if a boy's disposition 
be so abject as not to be mended by reproof, he will 
be hardened even to stripes ; and, lastly, because if 
one who regularly exacts his tasks be with him, there 
will not be the least need of any such chastisement." 
Our Roman schoolmaster thinks that "no part of 
a child's life should be exempt from tuition." " Let 
us not lose even the earliest period of life, and so 
much the less, as the elements of learning depend 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 8/ 

on the memory alone." ''The chief symptom of 
ability in children is memory ; the next is imita- 
tion." 

Quintilian takes a very encouraging view of the 
educability of the average boy. He says : " Let the 
father, as soon as his son is born, conceive, first of 
all, the best possible hopes of him, for he will thus 
grow the more solicitous about his improvement 
from the very beginning ; since it is a complaint 
without foundation, that * to very few people is 
granted the faculty of comprehending what is im- 
parted to them, and that most, through dulness of 
understanding, lose their labor and their time.' For, 
on the contrary, you will find the greater number of 
men both ready in conceiving and quick in learning, 
since such quickness is natural to man ; and as birds 
are born to fly, horses to run, and wild beasts to 
show fierceness, so to us peculiarly belong activity 
and sagacity of understanding, whence the origin of 
the mind is thought to be from Heaven. But dull 
and unteachable persons are no more produced in 
the course of nature than are persons marked by 
monstrosity and deformity ; such are certainly but 
few. It will be a proof of this assertion, that, among 
boys, good promise is shown in the far greater num- 
ber ; and, if it passes off in the progress of time, it 
is manifest that it was not natural ability, but care, 
that was wanting. But one surpasses another, you 
will say, in ability. I grant that this is true ; but 
only so far as to accomplish more or less, whereas 



I 88 ESSAYS 

there is no one who has not gained something by 
study." 

Discussing the relation of natural ability and cul- 
ture, our author says : " If you suppose either to be 
independent of the other, nature will be able to do 
much without learning ; but learning will be of no 
avail without the assistance of nature. But if they 
be united in equal parts, I shall be inclined to think 
that, when both are but moderate, the influence of 
nature is nevertheless greater ; but finished orators, 
I consider, owe more to learning than to nature. 
Thus the best husbandman cannot improve soil of no 
fertility, while from fertile ground something good 
will be produced even without the aid of the husband- 
man ; yet, if the husbandman bestows his labor on 
rich land, he will produce more effect than the good- 
ness of the soil itself. Had Praxiteles attempted to 
hew a statue out of a mill-stone, I should have pre- 
ferred it to an unhewn block of Parian marble ; but 
if that statuary had fashioned the marble, more value 
would have accrued to it from his own workmanship 
than was in the marble itself. In a word, nature is 
the material for learning, — the one forms, the other 
is formed. Art can do nothing without material ; 
material has its own nature even independent of art; 
but perfection of art is of more consequence than 
perfection of material." 

Ouintilian treats the important subject of diversity 
of natural gifts with wonderful discrimination and 
clearness. "Two things," he remarks, "are espe- 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 89 

cially to be avoided, — one to attempt what cannot 
be accomplished, and the other to divert a pupil from 
what he does well to something else for which he 
is less qualified." Yet he believes in harmonious 
development, and does not think " that any good 
quality, which is innate, should be detracted, but 
that whatever is inactive or deficient should be 
invigorated or supplied." 

Some pungent observations are made on precocity. 
'* That precocious sort of talent scarcely ever comes 
to good fruit. Such are those who do little things 
easily, and, impelled by impudence, show at once all 
they can accomplish in such matters. But they 
succeed only in what is ready to their hand ; they 
string words together, uttering them with an intrepid 
countenance, not in the least discouraged by bashful- 
ness, and do little, but do it readily. There is no 
real power behind, or any that rests on deeply fixed 
roots ; but they are like seeds which have been scat- 
tered on the surface of the ground and shoot up pre- 
maturely, and like grass that resembles corn, and 
grows yellow, with empty ears, before the time of 
harvest. Their efforts give pleasure, as compared 
with their years ; but their progress comes to a stand, 
and our wonder diminishes." 

Quintilian's model . pupil is described in these 
words : " Let the boy be given to me whom praise 
stimulates, whom honor delights, who weeps when 
he is unsuccessful. His powers must be cultivated 
under the influence of ambition ; reproach will sting 



1 90 ESSAYS 

him to the quick; honor will invite him, and in such 
a boy I shall never be apprehensive of indifference." 

The " Institutes " does not stop with the por- 
traiture of different types of pupils; the teacher is 
also painted in lively colors. Here are some pas- 
sages of keen truth ; '' The ablest teacher can teach 
little things if he will ; first, because it is likely that 
he who excels others has gained the most accurate 
knowledge of the means by which men attain excel- 
lence ; secondly, because method [ratio], which with 
the best qualified teachers, is always plainest, is of 
great efficacy in teaching ; and, lastly, because no 
man rises to such a height in greater things that 
lesser fade entirely from his view. ... It gener- 
ally happens that instructions given by the most 
learned are far more easy to be understood and 
more perspicuous than those of others. . . . The 
less able a teacher is, the more obscure will he be. 
For none are more pernicious than those who, hav- 
ing gone some little beyond the first elements, clothe 
themselves in a mistaken persuasion of their own 
knowledge, since they disdain to yield to those who 
are skilled in teaching." 

*' Above all, and especially for boys, a dry master 
is to be avoided not less than a dry soil for plants 
that are still tender. Under the influence of such a 
tutor they at once become dwarfish, — looking, as it 
were, toward the ground, and daring to aspire to 
nothing above every-day talk. To them leanness is 
in the place of health, and weakness instead of judg- 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IQI 

ment ; and while they think it sufficient to be free 
from fault, they fall into the fault of being free from 
merit. Let not even maturity itself, therefore, come 
too fast ; let not the malt while yet in the vat 
become mellow, — for so it will bear years, and 
improve by age." 

Here is Quintilian's outline of the ideal teacher : 
" Let him adopt, above all things, the feelings of a 
parent toward his pupils, and consider that he suc- 
ceeds to the place of those by whom they were 
intrusted to him. Let him neither have vices in 
himself, nor tolerate them in others. Let his aus- 
terity be not too stern, nor his affability too easy; 
let dislike arise from the one, or contempt from the 
other. Let him discourse freely on what is honor- 
able and good, for the oftener he admonishes the 
more seldom will he have to chastise. Let him not 
be of an angry temper, and yet not a conniver at 
what ought to be corrected. Let him be plain in 
his mode of teaching and patient of labor, but rather 
diligent in exacting tasks than fond of giving them 
of excessive length. Let him reply readily to those 
who put questions to him, and question of his own 
accord those who do not. In commendins: the exer- 
cises of his pupils, let him be neither niggardly nor 
lavish ; for the one quality begets dislike of labor, 
and the other self-complacency. In amending what 
requires -correction let him not be harsh, and least 
of all not reproachful ; for that very circumstance, 
that some teacher's blame as if they hated, deters 



192 ESSAYS 

many young men from their proposed course of 
study. Let him every day say something, and even 
much, which, when the pupils hear, they may carry 
away with them, — for though he may point out to 
them, in their course of reading, plenty of examples 
for their imitation, yet the living voice, as it is called, 
feeds the mind more nutriment, and especially the 
voice of the teacher, whom his pupils, if they are but 
rightly instructed, both love and reverence. How 
much more readily we imitate those whom we like, 
can scarcely be expressed." 

Quintilian's directions for instructing children are 
full and minute. As memory and imitation are the 
faculties first developed, the talk of the boy's nurses 
must be on proper subjects, and correct in grammar. 
The next things to be learned after the nursery 
stories are the fables of yEsop. Verses from the 
poets should be committed to memory. As soon as 
a boy has learned to read and write he should be 
instructed by the grammarians, — that is, Greek and 
Latin, — Greek first. This instruction includes the 
art of speaking. The directions for teaching ele- 
mentary grammar, and what we call rhetoric and 
composition, are practical, suggestive, and luminous. 
I know of nothing better of their kind in any modern 
book. The suo^srestions on readinof are most excel- 
lent, and as applicable now as in ancient times. 
" For my part," says our author, "■ I would have the 
best authors commenced at once, and read always ; 
but I would choose the clearest style and most in- 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 1 93 

telligible." " It has been an excellent custom that 
reading should begin with Homer .and Virgil, al- 
though, to understand their merits, there is needed 
much of mature judgment ; but for the acquisition of 
judgment there is abundance of time, for they will 
not be read but once." " Those writings should be 
the subjects of lectures for boys, which may best 
nourish the mind and enlarge the thinking powers; 
for reading other books, which relate merely to edu- 
cation, advanced life will afford sufficient time." 
"The love of letters and the benefit of reading are 
bounded, not by the time spent at school, but by the 
extent of life." 

Teachers of composition may find a useful hint in 
the following : " Let that age [youth] be daring, 
invent much, and delight in what it invents, though 
it be often not sufficiently severe and correct. The 
remedy for exuberance is easy ; barrenness is incur- 
able by any labor. That temper in boys will afford 
me little hope in which mental effort is prematurely 
restrained by judgment. I like what is produced to 
be extremely copious, profuse even beyond the limits 
of propriety. Years will greatly reduce superfluity ; 
judgment will smooth away much of it ; something 
will be worn off, as it were, if there be but metal 
from which something may be hewn and polished 
off ; and such metal there will be, if we do not make 
the plates too thin at first, so that deep cutting may 
break it." In another place we find this very true 
maxim : " By writing quickly we are not brought to 



194 ESSAYS 

write well, but by writing well we are brought to 
write quickly." 

After the foundations are well laid in reading, 
writing, and grammar, the education is built up on 
the old Greek plan. The superstructure consists of 
music, geometry, astronomy, philosophy, eloquence. 
Quintilian had in view the training of a perfect 
orator, as Plato had that of a perfect philosopher. 
Both conceived an ideal, completely accomplished 
man. Plato's mind, however, was altogether poetical, 
while Ouintilian's was altogether practical. Quin- 
tilian's finished man is the successful man of the 
world, but Plato's man is winged for other worlds. 

The ** Institutes " is one of the very best books on 
pedagogy that was ever written, and I do not see how 
it can ever be altogether superseded. It seizes upon 
the vital and the permanent. It is crammed full of 
sound sense. It broaches almost every important 
question in education. I could excuse the average 
lecturer on '* Theory and Practice " for stealing 
Quintilian to substitute for his own advanced views. 
Where will we find better methods of instruction 
than those 2:iven in the old treatise .'* Where finer 
bits of criticism ? Quintilian actually teaches the 
art of literary criticism. His comments on the 
principal writers of antiquity have been the delight 
of generations of scholars. 

It would be a service to the teachers' profession, 
and to the reading public, if some competent hand 
would compile a little volume of Quintiliana. 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I95 

6. GOETHE AS AN EDUCATIONAL LIGHT. 

Goethe was only twenty-eight years of age, when 
Jefferson brought to Carpenter's Hall that social and 
political document which announced to the world the 
independence of America and the inalienable rights 
of individual men. We may say that the powerful 
influence of Goethe began its active operation in 
Germany about the time that democracy became 
an actual shaping energy in the New World. Both 
forces worked together for freedom, humanity, and 
culture. Goethe's influence was scarcely felt in 
England or America until after 1824, the year in 
which deep-discerning Carlyle translated " Wilhelm 
Meister" into English. During the last half cen- 
tury the luminous message of Germany's profound 
thinker has been conveyed throughout all civilized 
lands ; and in this country it has become, if not pop- 
ular, at least known and appreciated by the reading 
and thinking class. Probably such books as " Wil- 
helm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels " will 
never attract the multitude ; neither will Plato, 
Dante, nor Milton. Nevertheless, from such supreme 
sources of knowledge, thought, and taste, come the 
ideas, theoretic and practical, which fill secondary 
books and finally permeate the common mind, as 
from mountain lakes issue vital springs and sparkling 
streams that flow downward to irrigate and fertilize 
forest and field. 

Goethe has been called the Apostle of Self-culture. 



196 ESSAYS 

Though his name is not often mentioned among 
those of renowned educational reformers, he may be 
ranked high in the first class of teachers of man- 
kind ; rather a former than a reformer, he deals with 
fundamentals, — grasps the great first principles of 
life and culture, and indicates the wisest modes of 
activity for men collectively and man the unit. The 
lesson of his life is most stimulating; contact with 
his vigorous mind, even throu^rh the medium of his 
books, leads to hopeful effort. How cheering, how 
exhilarating, how strength-giving, must his presence 
and intimate conversation have been to his associ- 
ates. His personality surcharged the air. One 
imagines that from him to his capable disciple, a 
liberal education might flow by spiritual induction. 
He was intensely alive physically and mentally to 
every external impression, and, to his apprehension, 
everything around, above, and below was also throb- 
bing with life. "His education," says one biogra- 
pher, " was irregular ; he went to no school, and his 
father rather stimulated than instructed him." Yet 
his surroundings were favorable. His receptive na- 
ture took in knowledge from all sides. He began 
consciously to /k'c as soon as he began to grow. 
Teachers in schools and colleges propose to fit boys 
and girls for living. His strong, spontaneous, and 
happy being did not separate the fitting from the 
living, but lived the fitting and fitted the living from 
the start to the close of his career. The motto on 
which he constantly dwells in his great work is this. 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IQ/ 

** Think on living!' The burden of his song is in 
the words : — 

" Life's no resting, but a moving ; 
Let thy life be deed ou deed ! " 

Sincerely desiring to know and understand nature 
and mankind in all their aspects, he sought and 
studied languages, literatures, science, art, and insti- 
tutions. Minerals he examined in mountain and 
mine, plants wherever they grew ; libraries were his 
workshops, books his tools. Goethe's museum con- 
tained all the Muses. The encyclopaedia of human 
nature he mastered by reading its speaking volumes, 
— -men, women, and children. The human heart was 
to him Bible and hymn-book. The world was his 
orange, and he richly enjoyed the nourishing juice of 
it. So great a brain as his, so richly endowed by 
nature, and so amply furnished with the accumulated 
knowledge of the past, corrected by present obser- 
vation, could not fail to give out value to other 
brains. There is hardly a topic within the wide 
range of pedagogical science, or within the still 
wider field of human culture, that Goethe has not 
touched somewhere in his writings. And whenever 
he touches a theme of this character, light appears, 
as when a conducting medium approaches an electri- 
fied body. Light and heat appear, and the warm, 
luminous shock makes an impression and is remem- 
bered. Commonplace writers say many true things 
and many important things, but say things in an 
ordinary and unsurprising way ; but men of origi- 



198 ESSAYS 

nality and special force utter themselves home to the 
heart and memory. Goethe does this. His concep- 
tions are striking, his images novel, his expression is 
large and suggestive. Whatever a really great man 
says on any subject is precious ; what Goethe said 
and thought about education deserves our reverent 
attention. We need not worship him, nor adhere to 
his errors ; but his serious opinions demand respect, 
because he was a lover of his race, because he strove 
to discover and announce the truth, and because he 
had the rare gift to express his thought in artistic 
and therefore admirable form. 

" Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels," 
while it purports to be merely a novel, is a somewhat 
fantastic treatise in poetic prose on life and culture 
in general ; it abounds in philosophical speculations, 
criticisms on literature and art, and subtle disquisi- 
tions concerning the innermost meanings of things 
human and divine. Like the enchanted cask in the 
drama of Faust, which yielded all varieties of wine 
according to the drinker's taste, and even spurted 
fire into daring cups, this miraculous vintage of 
thought and imagination furnishes a flagon to suit 
every palate. Here is geology for the scientific, art 
for the artistic, literature for the literary ; here are 
real life and ideal dreaming ; here are men and 
women of common and uncommon types ; and here, 
also, are allegorical creations of merely symbolic 
character. 

The entire work may be regarded as an attempt 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION I99 

to portray the processes of human development, and 
to indicate the duty of the individual to himself, and 
his relation to his fellow-man, and to the divine 
power. Meister's apprenticeship is the apprentice- 
ship or preparation for a no less serious trade than 
the art of living. The conception is the grandest 
with which human thouoht can concern itself. Is not 
education the supreme science of life, and conduct 
its application ? The second volume of the book 
deals directly with the motives and processes of in- 
struction and training as applied to youth, which we 
recognize as education or schooling. The author 
gives a picture or model of what he conceives to be 
the best general mode of education. In a prolonged 
episode detailing the nurture, instruction, and disci- 
pline of little Felix, Wilhelm Meister's son, we are 
introduced to an imaginary province of vast extent 
and great beauty, which Goethe says he might justly 
call a Pedagogic Utopia. The description of this 
region, its institutions, officers, and appliances for 
the development of boys into the full possession of 
their powers, occupies many chapters of the book, 
and constitutes a most admirable discourse on the 
principles and practice of education. Nothing more 
charming in the whole range of pedagogical litera- 
ture than these vivid chapters, unless we except 
the somewhat similar and equally lofty discussion of 
the same subject by John Milton in his celebrated 
''Tractate," depicting an ideal academy, or in the 
immortal '' Republic " of Plato. It may be remarked 



200 ESSAYS 

that both Goethe and Milton adopt many of Plato's 
views ; or shall we rather conclude that sublime 
minds naturally see and think alike, as eagles soar in 
planes of nearly the same altitude. Goethe attaches 
to music an educational importance as high as that 
which the great Greek philosopher conceded to it. 
He says, '' Song is the first step in education ; all the 
rest are connected with it and attained by means of 
it." In the exact practice of musical technic, he dis- 
covers not only a general harmonizing of the facul- 
ties, but a preparation for the precise understanding 
and use of arithmetic and other mathematical studies. 

In Goethe's scheme, no exercise, bodily or mental, 
is divorced from practical ends, no energy is to be 
wasted in abortive pursuits ; all learning is for the 
sake of doing ; all theory should be practicable. 
The poet was himself a man of affairs, honored as 
well for executive skill in business as for literary 
genius. The power which created Faust could also 
manage a theatre or transact a diplomatic commis- 
sion. He somewhere says, '' Practical activity and 
expertness are far more compatible with sufficient 
intellectual culture than is generally supposed." 

A leisurely excursion through the Pedagogical 
Province would certainly prove profitable, but to en- 
joy such journey completely, each excursionist will 
be his own best guide, travelling with book in hand. 
With Carlyle's translation as staff, I have wan- 
dered many times through Goethe's wonderful edu- 
cational Utopia, and each tour has revealed new 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 201 

objects of interest, and also, it must be confessed, 
new mysteries. Few books are more intricate and 
puzzling, and at the same time more fascinating. 
That must be an exceptional mind which is not 
lured by one thing or another in this book ; the 
man who understands it all is wiser than the author 
claimed to be. 

Without attempting a full or systematic survey of 
the Pedagogical Province, I shall give a few of its 
leading features, or, rather, some of the general ideas 
which governed its imaginary denizens. In the first 
place, Goethe believes in the educability of human 
nature. Culture, though it cannot create capacity, 
can develop the human powers to an unlimited de- 
gree. The main business of life is an active training 
of whatever faculties in the individual respond to an 
external or an internal call. The universe is the 
soul's necessity. When the child is born, he is in 
school, and his training is begun by every object and 
influence that surround him. The best that his par- 
ents can do, is to provide the most wholesome and 
happy circumstances among which the infant may 
grow and enjoy. Freedom and opportunity are the 
necessary conditions of fortunate development ; vi- 
tality and activity are what the developing body and 
soul of the child must bring to his own aid. It is a 
thought of the French writer Joubert, that " Man 
might be so educated that all his prepossessions would 
be truths, and all his feelings virtues." Goethe main- 
tains the like faith. He says, " Well-formed, healthy 



202 ESSAYS 

children bring much into the world with them. Na- 
ture has given to each whatever he requires for time 
and duration ; to unfold this is our duty ; often it un- 
folds itself better of its own accord." And again, 
" Let no one think that he can conquer the first im- 
pressions of youth. If he has grown up in enviable 
freedom, surrounded with beautiful and noble objects, 
in constant intercourse with worthy men ; if his mas- 
ters have taught him what he needed first to know, 
for comprehending more easily what followed ; if he 
has never learned anything which he requires to un- 
learn ; if his first operations have been so guided that 
without altering any of his habits he can more easily 
produce what is excellent in future ; then such a one 
will lead a purer, more perfect and happier life, than 
another man who has wasted the force of his youth 
in opposition and error. A great deal is said and 
written about education ; yet I meet with very few 
who can comprehend and transfer to practice this 
simple yet vast idea, which includes within itself all 
others connected with the subject." 

The passage just quoted sounds the keynote to 
Goethe's symphony of education. Freedom, — free- 
dom, — freedom ! action, — action, — action ! these 
are the. master-words of his discourse and exhortation. 
Give the individual elbow-room and breathing space. 
Let him seek and lind the learning and the vocation 
which God designed him to use. First of all, dis- 
cover if possible what is in the child, what nature 
suggests concerning his proper destiny, what he can 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 203 

probably do, what are his potential adaptations to life. 
He cannot be everything ; he must be one thing, 
or some few things at most. Though he must de- 
velop to the utmost all that lies germinal within him, 
and become a symmetrical and perfect man, he is but 
one viaii, a small part of the many that make up 
society and produce civilization. In Goethe's lan- 
guage, "It is all men that make up mankind; all 
powers taken together that make up the world. These 
are frequently at variance ; and, as they endeavor to 
destroy each other, nature holds them together, and 
again produces them. From the first animal ten- 
dency to handicraft attempts, up to the highest prac- 
tising of intellectual art ; from the inarticulate crow- 
ings of the happy infant, up to the polished utterance 
of the orator and singer ; from the first bickerings of 
boys, up to the vast equipments by which countries 
are conquered and retained ; from the slightest kind- 
liness and the most transitory love, to the fiercest 
passion and the most earnest covenant ; from the 
merest perception of sensible presence, up to the 
faintest presentiments and hopes of the remote spir- 
itual future ; all this, and much more, also, lies in 
man, and must Idc cultivated : yet not in one, but in 
many. Every gift is valuable, and ought to be un- 
folded. When one encourages the beautiful alone, 
and another encourages the useful alone, it takes 
them both to form a man. One power rules another: 
none can cultivate another : in each endowment, and 
not elsewhere, lies the force that must complete it : 



204 ESSAYS 

this many people do not understand, who yet attempt 
to teach and influence. Let us merely keep a clear 
and steady eye on what is in ourselves ; on what en- 
dowments of our own we mean to cultivate : let us 
be just to others ; for we ourselves are only to be 
valued in so far as we can value." 

Keeping in mind the clearly distinguished rela- 
tions of man, first to mankind in general and then 
to himself, we can understand why it is that Goethe 
places so much stress upon the importance of dis- 
covering innate capacity. His philosophy would not 
attempt to make silk purses of sows' ears, or sows' 
ears of silk purses ; would not expect to grow thistles 
on fig-trees, or fi,gs on thistle-bushes; would not 
promise to fit every man for all positions ; or, in a 
word, labor to frustrate the designs of nature, or 
substitute the schoolmaster's will for the command 
of Almighty God, written in the book of the child's 
manifest idiosyncrasy. The teacher should endeavor 
not to make his pupil over according to a precon- 
ceived model, but to discover what pattern the divine 
Creator has outlined for the guidance of human 
instruction. '' For to uniform we are altoe:ether 
disinclined," says the overseer of the pedagogical 
province ; ''uniform conceals the character, and, more 
than any other species of distortion, withdraws the 
peculiarities of children from the eye of their supe- 
riors." This was said in reference to dress, but the 
spirit of it applies to any external that may tend to 
obliterate individuality. Goethe looks with horror 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 20$ 

upon the fatal mistake of disregarding the natural 
differences in men. He would have all teachers 
dread the ever-present possibility that their pupils 
may waste effort by attempting what they can 
never hope to accomplish. " In all men," he declares, 
''there is a certain vague desire to imitate whatever 
is presented to them ; and such desires do not prove 
at all that we possess the force within us necessary 
for succeeding in these enterprises. Happy they 
who soon detect the chasm that lies between their 
wishes and their powers." 

Once more he asks, "What mortal in the world, 
if without inward calling he take up a trade, an art, 
or any mode of life, will not feel his situation miser- 
able ? But he who is born with capacities for any 
undertaking, finds in executing this the fairest por- 
tion of his being." And again, "Is there not good 
hope of a youth who, on commencing some unsuit- 
able affair, soon discovers its unsuitableness, and 
discontinues his exertions, not choosing to spend 
toil and time on what never can be of any value?" 
Further still I quote on this important point, "We 
should guard against a talent which we cannot hope 
to practise in perfection. Improve it as we may, we 
shall always, in the end, when the merit of the mas- 
ter has become apparent to us, painfully lament the 
loss of time and strength devoted to such botching." 
Does not the truth of this come home with sad 
emphasis to many a disappointed person who has 
squandered time, money, health, and enthusiasm in 



206 ESSAYS 

the forlorn attempt to cultivate a power the seeds of 
which nature never planted deeply in his being? 

Now, since children know not their own powers, 
since everything seems easy to them, since they 
readily imitate whatever they behold, since they 
are liable continually to mistake wishes for capaci- 
ties, is it not the first duty of the teacher to dis- 
cover their true dispositions and tendencies, to set 
them right when they chance to go wrong, and to 
keep their activity exercised in lines that lead to the 
best results ? The parent must at first think and 
judge for his child ; the teacher, in place of the 
parent, must assume the same delicate and difficult 
responsibility. To blunder at the beginning of the 
journey is to wreck the possibilities of a life ; there- 
fore the science of sciences, and the art of arts, so 
far as education is concerned, is the science and art 
of approximating to the correct discovery of the 
promising capacities of pupils. Tlie teacher needs 
to differentiate his boys and girls. They may all be 
taught from the same books, but not with the expec^ 
tation that all will make the same use of the same 
learning, or attain the same ends in life. Not uni- 
formity but diversity will result from an education 
which recognizes unlikeness in the very nature of 
minds. The pupil who is so fortunate as to find for 
himself, or to have discovered for him, his true bent, 
and who sets about doing that which there is good 
hope he can do, will not be long in coming to a full 
consciousness that he is on the right track. Every 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 20/ 

instinct, every hunger and thirst of his being, will 
find daily gratification, and will grow by what it feeds 
on. The student who is making progress towards 
the vocation he was born to follow, will delight even 
in the drudgery of his necessary task. His life's 
work will be avocation indeed, — a calling, — a joyous 
career of activity to which the inner voice invites 
him. All this is enforced, over and over again, by 
the author of '' Meister." He iterates and reiterates, 
"Every capability, however slight, is born with us; 
there is no vague, general capability in men. It is 
our ambiguous, dissipating education that makes men 
uncertain. It awakejis wishes when it should be 
animating tendencies ; instead of forwarding our real 
capacities, it turns our efforts towards objects which 
are frequently discordant with the mind that aims at 
them. I augur better of a child, a youth, who is 
wandering astray on a path of his own, than of 
many who are walking aright on paths which are 
not theirs. If the former, either by himself or by 
the guidance of others, ever finds the right path, 
that is to say the path that suits his nature, he will 
never leave it ; while the latter are in danger every 
moment of shaking off a foreign yoke, and abandon- 
ing themselves to unrestricted license." 

Goethe admits that it is extremely difficult to 
determine the child's natural bent, and therefore dif- 
ficult to select the course of culture best suited for 
each one's development. He seems to recommend 
that some special art or occupation should precede 



208 ESSAYS 

that general culture which belongs to the completed 
man. In the imaginary Province of the novel, when 
Meister presents his little son Felix to the directors, 
he asks advice thus, *' * If I thought of sending Felix 
for a while into one of these circles, which would'st 
thou recommend to me?' — 'It is all one,' replied 
Jarno; 'you cannot readily tell which way a child's 
capacity particularly points. ... In all things to 
serve from the lowest station up is necessary. To 
restrict yourself to a trade is best ; for the narrow 
mind, whatever he attempts is still a trade ; for the 
higher, an art ; and the highest, in doing one thing, 
does all ; or, to speak less paradoxically, in the one 
thing which he does rightly, he sees the likeness 
of all that is done rightly. Take thy Felix through 
the Province : let the directors see him ; they will 
soon judge him, and dispose of him to the best 
advantage.' " In another place we find this more 
general statement : '* In order to accomplish any- 
thing by education, we must first become acquainted 
with the pupil's tendencies and wishes ; that these 
once ascertained, he ought to be transported to a 
situation where he may, as speedily as possible, con- 
tent the former and attain the latter; and so if he 
have been mistaken he may still in time perceive his 
error ; and at last, having found what suits him, may 
hold the faster by it, may the more diligently fash- 
ion himself according to it." 

The reader cannot fail to observe that Goethe, 
though he places upon the teacher much responsi- 



STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION 209 

bility in aiding the child to discover its true field 
of activity, does not conceive it possible that the 
teacher should think and act for the learner in the 
vital processes of education. Human culture is neces- 
sarily self-culture. The teacher may point out what 
to do, and even explain how to do it, but the learner 
must do his own thinking and feeling. One can no 
more understand or enjoy for another, than he can 
digest or sleep for him. " Each man has his own 
fortune in his hands ; as the artist has a piece of 
rude matter which he is to fashion to a certain shape. 
But the art of living rightly is like all arts ; the ca- 
pacity alone is born with us ; it must be learned and 
practised with incessant care." These are Goethe's 
words. He warns all earnest souls that eternal ac- 
tivity is the price of culture. ''Nothing upon earth 
without its difficulties !" he exclaims. The best cul- 
ture is attained by the hardest work and at the ex- 
pense of much time. '' Steep regions cannot be sur- 
mounted," says the poet, ''save by winding paths; 
on the plain, straight roads conduct from place to 
place." 

We must not hastily conclude that because a youth 
is slow in manifesting talent or genius, he is desti- 
tute of natural ability. " He in whom there is much 
to be developed will be later in acquiring true per- 
ceptions of himself and of the world. There are 
few who at once have tJiougJit and the capacity of 
action. Thought expands, but lames : action ani- 
mates, but narrows." 



210 ESSAYS 

The several passages quoted will serve to bring 
out in sufficiently strong relief two or three of the 
leading principles of Goethe's educational doctrine. 
These principles are exceedingly suggestive and 
fruitful ; and while we may not all agree with all the 
deductions derivable from them, they undoubtedly 
contain much of the essence of eternal truth. He 
who agrees with them in theory, will not go far wrong 
in practice, and he who raises objections to them will 
at least get the benefit which comes from high think- 
ing ; for these supreme questions cannot be intelli- 
gently and candidly discussed without advantage to 
both sides. 

Passages from Wilhelm Meister. 
The Superficial Teacher. 
" Wilhelm signified his wish that Montan would impart to him so 
much as was required for the primary instruction of the boy. ' Give 
that up,' replied Montan. ' There is nothing more frightful than a 
teacher who knows only what his scholars are intended to know. He 
who means to teach others, may indeed often suppress the best of 
what he knows ; but he must not be half-instructed.' " 

Where to find Perfect Teachers. 
" ' Where then are perfect teachers to be found ? ' one says. 
* Where the thing thou art wishing to learn is in practice.' " 

Good JVork takes Time. 
" ' Was the world not made at once, then ? ' said Felix. * Hardly,' 
answered Jarno; 'good bread needs baking.'" 

First Steps in TeacJiing. 
"To fix a child's attention on what is present; to give him a 
description, a name, is the best thing we can do for him. He will 
soon enough begin to inquire after causes." 



STUDIES IN THE HISTOKY OF EDUCATION 211 

Head Versus Hands. 
" Drawing was not hard for me : I should have made greater 
progress, had my teacher possessed head and science ; he had only 
hands and practice." 

Conversation. 
" What you do not speak of, you will seldom accurately think of." 

StirjH Clint ing Difficulties. 
" We look upon our scholars as so many swimmers who, in the 
element which threatened to swallow them, feel with astonishment 
that they are lighter, that it bears and carries them forward; and so 
it is with everything that man undertakes." 

Aesthetic Cjiltiire. 
"Men are so inclined to content themselves with what is com- 
monest; the spirit and the senses so easily grow dead to the impres- 
sions of the beautiful and perfect, that every one should study by all 
methods to nourish in his mind the faculty of feeling these things. 
For no man can bear to be entirely deprived of such enjoyments : it is 
only because they are not used to taste of what is excellent, that the 
generality of people take delight in silly and insipid things, provided 
they be new. For this reason, one ought, every day at least, to hear 
a little song, read a good poem, or see a fine picture." 

Men's Teachers. 
" What in us the women leave uncultivated, children cultivate 
when we retain them near us." 

Reverence. 

" One thing there is which no child brings into the world with 

him; and yet it is on this one thing that all depends for making man, 

in every point, a man. Reverence ! Reverence for that which is 

above us, for that which is below us, and for that which is around us." 

Hoiv to regard Others. 
"When we take people merely as they are, we make them worse; 
when we treat them as if they were what they should be, we improve 
hem as far as they can be improved," 



212 ESSAYS 

The Best. 
" Words are good, but they are not the best. The best is not to 
be explained by words. The spirit in which we act is the highest 
matter." 

Religion. 
"I look upon religion as a kind of diet, which can only be so 
when I make a constant practice of it, when, throughout the whole 
twelve months, I never lose it out of sight." 



THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 2I3 



X 

THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL i 

The subject of my address is The Utility of the 
Ideal. I employ the word Utility to signify some- 
thins; more than mere material usefulness. Manures 
upon land are of utility ; so also are evanescent tints 
upon dissolving clouds. The economic maxims of 
Poor Richard are of utility ; so also are the dreams 
and reveries of Ik Marvel. Comprehensively speak- 
ing, we say that whatever can better the character or 
condition of man is of utility. Whatever can ele- 
vate thought, purify taste, awaken aspiration, or wean 
the faculties from low and unworthy tendencies, is 
of incalculable utility. 

'' And yet," exclaims Ruskin, '' people speak, in 
this working age, when they speak from their hearts, 
as if houses and lands, and food and raiment, were 
alone useful, and as if sight, thought, and admiration 
were all profitless ; so that men insolently call them- 
selves utilitarians who would turn, if they had their 
way, themselves and their race into vegetables; men 
who think, so far as such men can be said to think, 

1 Annual Address before the Ohio Teachers' Association at Columbus, O., Wednes- 
day, July 6, 1870. 



214 ESSAYS 

that the meat is more than the life, and the raiment 
more than the body ; who look to the earth as to a 
stable, and to its fruit as to fodder ; vine-dressers and 
husbandmen who love the corn they grind, and the 
grapes they crush, better than the gardens of the 
angels upon the slopes of Eden ; hewers of wood and 
drawers of water who think that the wood they hew, 
and the water they draw, are better than the pine 
forests that cover the mountains like the shadow of 
God, and than the great rivers that move like his 
eternity." 

To such persons, the title of this discourse. The 
Utility of the Ideal, is an absurd collocation of words. 
To such the word Utility has but a meagre meaning, 
and the term Ideal is but empty breath, or, at most, 
but a convenient negative, signifying the utter absence 
of the actual. Such do not recognize the Idealist as 
a rational being. They deny the existence of the vast 
invisible world of which he speaks and sings. Their 
experience acquaints them only with things tangible, 
visible, sapid, odorous. They are cognizant only of 
forces obvious to animal perception. They believe, as 
Emerson humorously states it, "that mustard bites the 
tongue, that pepper is hot, friction matches incendiary, 
revolvers to be avoided, and suspenders hold up panta- 
loons." With Plato's ''earth-sprung" Athenians, 
they contend ''that whatever cannot be squeezed 
together in the hands is wholly nothing." They 
indorse the opinion of Dupaty, of the French As- 
sociation, who declared to the astronomer La Place, 



THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 21 5 

that the discovery of a new pudding is of much more 
importance than the discovery of a new comet. In 
gross and sensuous scepticism, they hardly stop 
short of the Bosjesmen of South Africa, who, when 
told that there is a God, incredulously exclaim, " Show 
him to me ! " 

Common to the matter-of-fact class is a disposition 
to divest even the external world of whatever con- 
tributes to sentiment or taste. Not satisfied with 
contemning the adornments of art, they even seem 
to regard nature's exuberant loveliness as useless 
superfluity. Instead of rejoicing in the all-pervading 
beauty of the earth, they frown upon it as though it 
were a chief manifestation of God's curse upon a 
disobedient race. They would make anchorites of 
the sons and dau2:hters of men. In the name of all 
the virtues, they would clip off the golden edges of the 
summer clouds, change the many hues of vegeta- 
tion to a uniform blue-^ray or butternut, veto the 
melodious carols of the birds, plough up your flower- 
bed and sow it with turnip-seed, batter the orna- 
mental cornice from your house, pull down the 
pictures from your wall, cast your fashion magazine 
into the fire, and coin your jewels into Federal money. 

It is foolish to underrate the value of material 
good. Property is power. Houses and lands, food 
and raiment, machinery and money, are excellent 
so far as they go, and they go far. But these things 
take care of themselves. No man needs arguments 
to convince him of the utility of eligible town-lots, 



2l6 ESSAYS 

paying mines, and bank-stock producing big divi- 
dends. All admit that man is a fine aniuial, the finest, 
— and that he is worthy to live in material splendor, 
ease, and luxury. He must lie soft, feed rich, dress 
royally. But is not man something more and better 
than a superb animal ? more and better than vitalized 
earth } Nay, he is also vitalized Heaven. He has 
a soul in his body. He has spiritual faculties as well 
as senses. All his powers and susceptibilities should 
be recognized and nurtured. Who shall presume to 
set aside any element of his nature as useless, evil, 
or unworthy of care } Dare one assert that any 
ingredient that God has put into the human constitu- 
tion is misplaced t Nay, every faculty of body and 
soul contributes to the perfection of our nature, and 
demands a legitimate sphere of action. It is true 
that faculties may be abused or perverted, but that is 
no reason why they should be suppressed, or why 
their normal function should be denied. 

Ideality, as Tuckerman truly observes, is as much 
a heaven-implanted faculty as conscientiousness. 
They mistake who suppose that it is a noxious weed, 
springing up in the mind to the injury of practical 
sense, morality, or religion. Divine Wisdom drops 
the tender seed of imagination into the unconscious 
soul of the infant. The morning of life quickens the 
seed, and it becomes an early flower, indigenous to 
childhood, the very spring-beauty of that auspicious 
season. Children imagine as naturally as they laugh 
and cry. To them a few sticks laid around the stump 



THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 21^ 

of a tree become lofty walls, enclosing noble apart- 
ments ; in shapeless blocks and broken stones they 
possess elegant fm-nitm-e ; in bits of shattered crock- 
ery and refuse fragments from the tin-shop they 
behold costly sets of china and magnificent silver 
service. One littb girl prattling in a playhouse by 
herself, is multiplied by the swift arithmetic of her 
busy fancy into a parlorful of ladies and gentlemen, 
voluble in polite conversation, and mindful of every 
courtesy of society. Isn't a broomstick a veritable 
horse to little Tommy .? and isn't Tommy a locomo- 
tive when he noisily pulls three cigar-boxes tied to- 
gether in a row along the gravel walk, puffing as 
he runs ? Does not Annie's doll understand as well 
as anybody .'' Is there not a crock of gold at the 
end of the rainbow, and a Santa Claus at the end of 
the year ? Do not the birds talk and the winds whis- 
per a language intelligible to the children } In the 
clouds they see cities, and armies flying, and marvel- 
lous mountains ; and when it thunders, the mountains 
change to stormy battlements, and the armies bom- 
bard the cities, and set them afire with torches of 
lightning. To them in other mood, the awful thun- 
der may seem the voice of omnipotent God uttering 
unto the ends of the earth, /AM, I AM. Oh, cred- 
ulous, creative childhood! who' would rob it of its 
irradiant atmosphere of imagination .? Who would 
dispel the golden and roseate clouds that flush and 
float along its marvellous horizon } Ideality is to the 
child the very perianth of his young existence, as 



2l8 ESSAYS 

necessary to his healthy development as are floral 
appendages to the rudimentary fruit which they sur- 
round. In due time the petals of youthful fancy are 
scattered by the wind of experience, and a new mode 
of growth begins. But, alas for the fruit, if the 
flower be prematurely removed ! alas, if it be re- 
pressed ! 

" There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, 
The earth, and every common sight, 

To me did seem 
Apparelled in celestial light, 
The glory and the freshness of a dream." 

Soon enough come the years that compel the sad 
continuation of the verse : — 

" It is not now as it hath been of yore ; 
Turn wheresoe'er I may, 
By night or day. 
The things which I have seen, I now can see no more." 

It is the spontaneous act of the child's mind to 
transmute the real into the ideal. The radiance of 
unobscured faith changes common earth into fairy- 
land for the young and innocent. The magical 
world of ideality moves along with the child as a 
halo moves along with the moon. It guards the new 
existence from worldly harm while it is yet too weak 
to guard itself. It even alleviates pain and steals 
away the monotony of irksome duty. Did you 
never when a child, engaged in some disagreeable 
task, banish the thought of present weariness by call- 



THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 2I9 

ing the wizard Fancy to your aid ? Did you never, 
while drudging over some repulsive work, fly away 
in glad revery to wander amidst the delights of Alad- 
din's palace ? What sensitive child has not, when 
sick or lonely, or grieVed or afraid, found comfort 
and peace by summoning a host of imaginary attend- 
ants to sympathize with him, and perhaps gently 
lead him out of himself into the healing paradise of 
dreams ? There was a lad to whom the anguish of a 
great bereavement would have proven insupportable, 
had it not been for a comforting belief, dependent 
upon an excited fancy, — the belief that a beloved 
sister, though gone from earth, sometimes played for 
him her angel harp, so that he could hear it faintly 
sounding — oh, how faintly ! — in far-off mansions of 
the Blest. 

Charles Dickens has written more frequently and 
pathetically than any other author in behalf of chil- 
dren, and their divine right to exercise their faculties 
in a natural and happy way. He has also given us 
many graphic pictures of the stern materialist and 
the unpoetic worldling. Perhaps he has drawn no 
character of this kind more truly representative than 
that of Thomas Gradgrind, " the man of facts and 
calculations," whose favorite words are, " Now, what 
I want, is facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing 
but facts. Facts alone are needed in life. Plant 
nothing else ; root out everything else. You can 
only form the minds of reasoning animals upon facts ; 
nothing else will be of any service to them. This is 



220 ESSAYS 

the principle upon which I bring up my own chil- 
dren, and it is the principle upon which I bring 
up these children. Stick to facts, sir ! " You who 
have read the . story recollect how Thomas Grad- 
grind's model son and daughter lived in Stone 
Lodge, and had a little conchological cabinet, and a 
little metallurgical cabinet, and a little mineralogical 
cabinet, with the specimens all labelled and arranged^ 
and how, almost as soon as they could run, they had 
been made to run to the lecture room ; how they had 
never seen a face in the moon, nor said, — 

" Twinkle, twinkle, little star, 
How I wonder what you are ; " 

for they were never permitted to wonder anything. 
You remember how the children's instinct struggled 
against a training at once rigorous, austere, and re- 
pulsive ; how too much restraint turned their bet- 
ter feelings inward, to work slow destruction upon 
the character ; how their repressed fancy became a 
maimed and distorted faculty ; how Louisa, step by 
step, became morbid and sullen, then desperate and 
reckless ; how Tom, the father's idol, naturally of 
noble tendency, grew, by degrees, selfish and exact- 
ing, then hypocritical and dishonest, then mean and 
whelpish, and how he at last died a wretched vaga- 
bond. 

Is not the story logical and wise } Does it not 
afford a warning that many a mother and father, 
public teacher, and gospel minister should heed.'* 



THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 221 

Nay, Thomas Gradgrind, not facts alone should oc- 
cupy the growing mind, but fancies also, as nature 
imperatively demands. Not realities alone, as you 
define realities, but ideals too, as the well-being of 
the soul requires. Man is not a calculating machine, 
not a patent memorizer of dead facts, not a passion- 
less, reasoning animal ; not a creature of few and 
simple capacities easily estimated and readily supplied. 
His spiritual dimensions cannot be taken ; his powers 
and needs cannot be summed up. Above the plane 
of ordinary sensations and conceptions lie the vast 
plateaus of thought and affection, the towering sum- 
mits of imagination, the fiery craters of passion, the 
snow-white peaks of heavenward aspiration. Man is 
the centre of a boundless sphere of which but a little 
inner circle is to him actually and scientifically known. 
Infinity encompasses him round about. He is conscious 
of a mysterious relationship which his own nature 
bears to a whole universe of material and non-material 
things. His faculties strive uneasily towards attract- 
ing forces created for them. By and by they grow 
stronger, and reach toward the object of their desire 
with assured confidence. The senses are not happy 
until they know how to observe, and are furnished 
with proper objects. The memory demands material 
to memorize. The reason craves subjects upon which 
to exercise its peculiar function. Love is feeble 
without a beloved. Taste remains latent without 
the beautiful to call it forth. The All-provident has 
created in the vast storehouses of human resource 



222 ESSAYS 

abundant supplies to answer every possible demand 
of our nature. Perfect human culture would result 
from the adjustment of all the faculties to the func- 
tions which they are designed to perform. In other 
words, right education finds out for man conditions 
in which he can obtain suitable exercise for every 
power — suitable supply for every innate want. If 
these conditions are already favorable, man will not 
need the offices of the educator. Only close the cir- 
cuit of right influences around him, and, like the 
electro-magnet, he becomes strong by a species of 
induction that no man can explain. 

While we condemn the philosophy of Gradgrind, 
it does not follow that we adopt its extreme opposite. 
The child's imagination, though it should be recog- 
nized and cherished, needs but little artificial stimu- 
lation. Unless impaired by hereditary neglect, or 
paralyzed by false training, or enfeebled by baleful 
surroundings, it will spring into activity, provided it 
is only set free, and allowed a field of reasonable 
extent in which to range. 

There is in our day no good excuse for permitting 
children to read books of indifferent quality. Many 
most excellent juveniles have been written within 
the decade. The highest genius in the world has 
exercised itself in behalf of the children. But it is 
with books as with money, — the less valuable circulate 
to the exclusion of the intrinsic best. 

Among the commendable things undertaken in 
busy Boston, is the establishment of a commission 



THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 223 

of cultivated women to sit in judgment upon the 
merits of Sunday-school and other juvenile books. 
Every volume submitted to the commission for exam- 
ination is read and recommended by at least five 
critics, before it is approved and entered upon the 
catalogue of unexceptionable publications. It is to be 
hoped that this commission and others like it, if they 
should be formed, will make a thorough winnowing 
of the chaff from the wheat in children's story-books. 
We must not inconsiderately reject all fictitious ju- 
venile literature because much of it is worthless, or 
even worse. I would not deprive children of fairy 
or dwarf, hunchback or magician. Jack the Giant- 
killer, or Cinderella. Mother Goose, unexpurgated, 
is good reading, and furnishes an excellent founda- 
tion for primary education. The history of the 
Babes in the Woods, as related in the quaint old 
ballad, should be treasured in every nursery. How 
many tears have moistened the page which records 
the last sleep of the lonely children in each other's 
arms, and the mournful rite of the sympathetic robins ! 
Such tears are spring rains that quicken plants of 
affection to bloom and bear fruit in the summer of ma- 
turer years. One great function of the story-books is 
to touch the feelings and evoke the moral sentiments ; 
to convey ideas of justice and injustice, reward and 
retribution, sacrifice and sufferance of wrong. The 
sympathies and antipathies are aroused ; the young 
reader measures himself by an ideal standard ; good 
motives prevail, and character grows. The crying 



224 ESSAYS 

part in many of the old nursery ballads is the valuable 
part. This fact the publishers do not seem to appre- 
ciate; hence we have so many mutilated editions of 
standard story-books. The prevailing custom is to 
leave out, or at least greatly to soften down, the tragi- 
cal portion of the stories, in the mistaken belief that 
nothing painful should be presented to the mind of 
the little reader. There is a version of the pathetic 
ballad just alluded to which, instead of terminating 
with the death of the wandering babes, represents 
them as only sleeping one night in the forest, to be 
discovered next day and carried in triumph to the 
palace of their inheritance. There is a rehash of the 
romance of Red Riding Hood, according to which 
the little maid did not go down the wolf's throat at 
all, after the last fearful exclamation, " O grand- 
mother, what great teeth you have ! " Instead of eat- 
ing Red Riding Hood, the wolf is killed by a valiant 
wood-cutter, and the child is rescued without a scratch. 
This is as bad as bringing Romeo and Juliet to life 
after the scene in the Capulets' tomb, or restoring 
the king to reason and Cordelia to life in the tragedy 
of Lear. 

We can ill spare from the armory of educational 
instruments such compositions, fictitious or true, as 
serve to fire young people with noble enthusiasm and 
heroic ambition ; or which cultivate in them a delicate 
sense of poetic justice. The romantic ballad, the 
trenchant fable, the florid allegory, the thrilling nar- 
rative of imaginary brave adventure, are all service- 
able allies of the prudent parent or instructor. 



THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 225 

When we emerge from the enchanted wonderland 
of youth into the more sober region of adult years, 
the imagination changes somewhat in character, and 
we naturally seek a different method of gratifying it. 
Reason and experience, passion and sentiment, mod- 
ify our ideal conceptions. Fancy is restrained. We 
begin to judge fiction and poetry by a standard of 
taste and propriety. In short, the lordly faculty, 
imagination, which before was our ruler and master, 
is now itself subject to cultivation, and made subser- 
vient to the will. Still it continues, as it was, a pur- 
veyor of profit and pleasure to the soul, and a magic 
shield between its possessor and much that is offen- 
sive in life. At maturity we minister to the ideal 
faculty in many ways, but chiefly by means of fiction, 
poetry, and the other aesthetic arts, appealing to the 
imagination. 

The time is not yet passed in which the novel is 
occasionally arraigned before the tribunals more or 
less representative of popular opinion, to answer for 
its moral character and its influence upon the mind. 
Many witnesses have from time to time given testimony 
concerning it. Rousseau said that romances induced 
in him fantastic and false notions of life, whereof he 
was never entirely cured by experience and reflec- 
tion. Samuel Johnson minutely depicts the perni- 
cious effects of indulgence in revery, and shows how 
"by degrees the reign of fancy is confirmed; how 
she first grows imperious, and in time despotic. 
Then fictions begin to operate as realities, false opin- 



226 ESSAYS 

ions fasten upon the mind, and life passes in dreams 
of rapture or anguish." Multitudes of writers of less 
note than Johnson have asserted that the habit of 
reading fiction unfits the mind for severe application, 
and destroys a healthy interest in the practical affairs 
of life. The novel has not unfrequently been de- 
nounced from the pulpit as an unmitigated evil, 
inflaming the passions and tending to confound all 
moral distinctions. On the other hand, there are 
not wanting weighty authorities in favor of fiction. 
Hazlitt declares that "there are few books to which 
he is oftener tempted to turn for profit and delight 
than the standard novels. We find in them," he 
says, "a close imitation of men and manners; we see 
the very web and texture of society as it really exists, 
and as we meet it as we come into this w^orld. We 
are brought acquainted with the motives and charac- 
ters of mankind, imbibe our notions of virtue and 
vice from practical examples, and are taught a knowl- 
edge of the world through the airy medium of 
romance." 

The novelist has not only to study the manners of 
men, and the construction and visible operations of 
society, but also to discern the laws of mind, and to 
describe the sources and consequences of human 
actions. He illustrates the possibilities of life by 
supposing persons of various character influenced by 
various situations and conditions. He depicts the 
power and operation of the passions. He exhibits 
in striking contrast the different states of humanity. 



THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 22/ 

He portrays the struggles of pride and duty, the 
triumph of virtue and heroism, the deformity of crime, 
the omnipotence of love. To create such a work as 
"Don Quixote," "Tom Jones," "Ivanhoe," "David 
Copperfield," or "The Newcombs," is no easy or 
frivolous task. On the contrary, it is a labor which 
calls for an intimate knowledge of human nature, 
clear judgment, and continued application, to say 
nothing of the wonderful inventive faculty upon 
which, more than upon all the rest, it depends. The 
plot of a good novel must accord with the possibili- 
ties of things. Like a perfect landscape painting, the 
novel must truly represent reality, though no part 
of it need be directly copied from nature. 

There are many very excellent people who cannot 
get rid of conscientious scruples against reading a 
novel, so long as there is a history or a biography to 
be had, not conceiving that a true record of thought 
and sentiment may be as valuable as a record of word 
and deed. They do not see, for example, how Char- 
lotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" can be a better book and 
a truer biography than Mrs. Gaskell's " Life of Char- 
lotte Bronte," as it certainly is. 

Fielding wittily said, in a satirical comparison of 
his novels with the works of professed historians, 
that, in their productions, nothing was true but names 
and dates, while in his everything was true except 
the names and dates. 

Charles Reade boldly claims that fiction, " what- 
ever you may have heard to the contrary, is the 



228 ESSAYS 

highest, widest, noblest, and greatest of all the arts ; " 
that it "studies, penetrates, digests, the hard facts of 
chronicles and blue books, and makes their dry bones 
live." 

By their fruits shall ye know men and books. That 
is the truest and most valuable book which most 
benefits the character and enlarges the mind of the 
reader. Precious is that reading which opens the 
heart to humane influences, which widens our sym- 
pathies for our fellow-creatures, which, by presenting 
lovable ideals, increases our reverence for human 
nature and our belief in its perfectibility. Precious 
also is that reading which contributes to innocent 
amusement ; for cheerfulness disposes to goodness, 
and a hearty laugh is the best gymnastics for both 
body and soul. Let us be grateful for the profit, the 
pleasure, the inspiration, which we derive from the 
works of great novelists. Among the literary bene- 
factors of mankind, while we number famous philoso- 
phers and historians and essayists and bards, may 
we not forget to include the celebrated authors of 
fiction, — Cervantes and Richardson and Fielding 
and Scott and Thackeray, and above all — the great- 
est novelist that ever lived and died, whose name is 
in your warm hearts before my lips pronounce it — 
Charles Dickens. 

The objection to the novel on moral grounds is 
seldom urged in the present day, since clergymen and 
other public teachers, avowedly the champions of 
virtue and religion, have taken to the invention of 



THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 229 

stories as a direct means of Christian instruction, and 
the religious novel finds a place on the centre-table 
of the strictest deacon. 

The conveyance of moral precepts or of practical 
information is not a necessary object of fiction. The 
so-called '' novel with a purpose " is generally a fail- 
ure. The novel proper is not a didactic treatise under 
an assumed name, nor a sermon travelling incognito, 
nor a new philosophy sugar-coated. The novel is a 
work of art, as a poem or a statue is. It is enough if 
it be true to itself. Its unity explains its purpose ; 
its consistency vindicates its character. 

The literary creator hears the question, " What do 
you mean } " with a feeling of humiliation. If he has 
succeeded in producing what he aimed at, a work of 
art, that work is self-explanatory to all who can ap- 
preciate it ; to those who cannot, no amount of ex- 
planation will prove satisfactory. What does any 
work of fine art mean } It means simply approach 
toward the realization of an ideal. Is there not sat- 
isfaction in the mere contemplation of a harmonious, 
consistent plan .-^ — skilful development of supposed 
events.'* — lively and accurate representation of char- 
acter and manners } — felicity of expression } " Eat 
thou honey because it is good," is the counsel of 
Solomon. There is an 3esthetic taste ! Its honey 
is the artistic, the well-related, the beautiful, the 
ideally true. If Lord Brougham makes the pleasure 
of the mind a sufficient motive for the study of phi- 
losophy, if Sir John Herschel is indignant when 



230 ESSAYS 

asked "whither his researches tend," and feels that 
there is a lofty and disinterested pleasure in his 
speculations that ought to exempt him from such 
questionings, how shall the literary artist humiliate 
himself to explain the value of his productions ? The 
true work of art has its practical uses. It signifies 
many things to many minds. Each reader may in- 
terpret Faust and Hamlet as he can, but Goethe and 
Shakespeare only create. 

" Say to what uses shall we put 

The wildwood flower that merely blows, 
Or is there any moral shut 

Within the bosom of the rose ? 
But any man that walks the mead, 

In bud, or blade, or bloom, may find, 
According as his humors lead, 

A meaning suited to his mind ; 
And liberal applications lie 

In art, like nature, dearest friend ; 
So 'twere to cramp its use, if I 

Should hook it to some useful end." 

Leaving the realm of prose fiction, we find the 
next manifestation of ideality in the field of poetry. 
Here imagination takes her noblest flights, and fancy 
roams at will. The grossest air of poesy is ether ; 
her eye is microscopic, and her ear catches the 
sound of flowers blossoming. She breathes the 
odors wafted from Paradise, and feeds on dews im- 
palpable, shed from unseen skies, spanning the mys- 
tic land of dreams ! Vex not the bard with questions 
of time and sense. He dwells in spirit and in eter- 



THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 23 1 

nity. Commiserate him not, though he seem poor 
and lowly. The poet is forever blest. He loves all 
things. His is the joy and peace of infinite hope and 
faith. Surround him with poverty and squalor and 
sin and woe, he will discover in the vilest face some 
angelic lineament, and in the saddest spot some ray 
of consoling beauty. Put him in dungeon "depths, 
yet will his starry thoughts light up the gloom, trans- 
forming it to glory. Poeta, maker — he is like a 
god. Out of the void he creates immortal forms. 

" The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling, 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; 
And as imagination bodies forth 
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing 
A local habitation and a name." 

The Utility of the Ideal ! How the glowing theme 
expands as we strive to compass it ! In every high 
department of human cultivation it is apparent. 
Proud, calm science, poised in an atmosphere of 
actual phenomena, is often borne to loftier heights 
than reason kens, on the daring wings of imagina- 
tion, as the discoveries of Kepler prove. Max Miiller 
declares that '' the torch of imagination is as ne- 
cessary to him who looks for truth, as the lamp of 
study ;" and Sir David Brewster admits " that, as an 
instrument of research, the influence of imagination 
has been much overlooked by those who have ven- 
tured to give laws to philosophy." And a great ex- 
ponent of modern science says that *' Bounded and 



232 ESSAYS 

conditioned by co-operant reason, imagination be- 
comes the mightiest instrument of the physical dis- 
coverer. Newton's passage from a falling apple to 
a falling moon was a leap of the imagination. When 
Sir William Thomson tries to place the ultimate 
particles of matter between his compass points, and 
to apply them to a scale of millimetres, it is an exer- 
cise of the imagination. And in much that has re- 
cently been said about protoplasm and life, we have 
the outgoings of the imagination guided and con- 
trolled by the known analogies of science." 

Ideality is necessarily developed in the pursuit 
of the aesthetic arts. Music, that divinest human 
possession, is it not language without words .'' one 
degree nearer to the absolute expression of our pas- 
sionate longing for unutterable sweetness and har- 
mony.^ Painting and sculpture, are they not at- 
tempts to set forth conceptions more perfect and 
lovely than any that are derived from natural ob- 
jects ? Are not all great works of art, as Edgar Poe 
has exquisitely expressed it, efforts " to apprehend 
the supernal loveliness .'* to grasp, now wholly here 
on earth, those divine and rapturous joys of which 
we obtain but brief and indeterminate glimpses " ? 
Is not the infinite desire with which we seek to real- 
ize the ideal, a species of worship ? 

The favorite subjects of high art have ever been 
sacred. From the time of Solomon's Temple to this 
day, the resources of architecture have been lavished 
upon cathedrals dedicated to serving the Lord. 



THE UTILITY OF THE IDEAL 233 

Rubens's masterpiece was the Descent from the 
Cross. Michael Angelo's last work represented the 
same beautiful and touching subject. The designs 
of Raphael are chiefly drawn from Scripture history. 
The last touches of his hand rested upon the head 
of Christ in the picture of the Transfiguration. " It 
was," says Vasari, " the greatest effort of an art 
which could go no farther ; and this last term of 
the painting marked also the term of the life of the 
painter. He never touched pencil more." 

The sublimest musical composition of Haydn is the 
oratorio *' Creation ; " Beethoven's Symphonies are 
the rapture of devotion ; the spirit of Mozart breathed 
itself to Paradise in a prophetic requiem. 

Tasso is immortal in ''Jerusalem Delivered." 
Dante in the " Divina Commedia;" Milton's genius 
culminated in the production of '' Paradise Lost ; " 
and the sacred Book concludes with the magnificent 
imagery of the Apocalypse. 

Thus does the ideal evermore ascend. Thus does 
it struggle up through earth's restraints and pains, 
aspiring to immortal estates. The holiest efforts of 
our lives are strivings towards the ideal good which 
we vaguely comprehend. That which we call the 
ideal is the only eternal actual. Is not the body the 
simulacrum, and the invisible soul the real existence } 
Are not the essential truth, beauty, good, love, of 
this Universe abstract, indefinite, pure ideal .? The 
fairest visions that float above the low confines of 
earth, are they not hints and suggestions of heaven } 



234 ESSAYS 

Mysterious heaven ! eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man 
the things which God hath prepared ; yet when with 
pure desires we climb the dazzling stair of Ideality, 
up by the golden steps of spiritual culture, we feel 
the airs of the city of rapture blowing in our souls, 
and almost see, with spirit vision, the glory-tinted 
pinnacles of the temple of perfection gleaming afar ! 
Mount higher yet, O soul, on trembling wings of 
faith and adoration ! pierce further yet, O anxious 
eyes, into the uncreated light ! The music of the 
spheres rings in celestial harmony around. The infi- 
nite and eternal Paradise is entered, but the Ideal is 
not attained. It evermore recedes, ascends. It is 
inaccessible. From everlasting to everlasting we 
shall pursue it, and the pursuit shall be one of end- 
less happiness. For the ideal of those who have put 
on immortality, is not other than God, the sum and 
essence of all perfections. 



SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 23 5 



XI 



SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND 
SENTIMENT i 

Jacob Grimm, in his "Teutonic Mythology," 
proves that the Aryan word for temple means also 
grove. 

" The groves were God's first temples." 

Our ancestors held the woodland sacred, and wor- 
shipped individual trees. A grand conception of 
Norse mythology is that of the tree Igdrasil. The 
intense prose-poet of Craigenputtoch puts the gigan- 
tic idea in scenic words. *' I like, too," he says, 
"that representation they have of the tree Igdrasil. 
All life is figured by them as a tree. Igdrasil, the 
Ash-tree of Existence, has its roots deep down in 
the kingdoms of Hela, or Death ; its trunk reaches 
up heaven-high, spreads its boughs over the whole 
universe ; it is the Tree of Existence. At the foot 
of it, in the Death Kingdom, sit three Nomas, 
Fates, — the Past, Present, and Future, — watering its 
roots from the Sacred Well. Its boughs, with their 
buddings and disleafings, — events, things done, catas- 
trophes, — stretch through all lands and times. Is 

1 An Arbor Day Essay — Read before the Ohio State Forestry Association, 



236 ESSAYS 

not every leaf of it a biography, every fibre there an 
act or word? Its boughs are histories of nations. 
The rustle of it is the voice of human existence, 
onward from of old. It grows there, the breath of 
human passion rustling through it ; or storm-tossed, 
the storm wind howling through it like the voice of 
all the gods. It is Igdrasil, the Tree of Existence." 
The primitive people of Northern Europe conse- 
crated groves. They felt the solemn influence of 
imperial trees, and deemed that the gods throned 
themselves among the sky-reaching branches. The 
instinct is natural. Architects conjecture that the 
gothic arch was suggested by the majestic aisles of 
the cathedral-forest. The camp-meeting of recent 
days depends for much of its picturesque and inspir- 
ing power upon the essential dignity and sublimity 
of the forest. The local worship of trees as symbols 
of some mysterious power, survived in Germany 
long after the introduction of Christianity. The 
holy oak of Geismar, in Hesse, was cut down by 
certain missionaries in about 725 a.d., and the tim- 
bers hewn from it were built into a church edifice 
dedicated to Saint Peter. As Kins: Olaf 

*' Preached the gospel with his sword," 

SO the militant priests preached with the axe. Many 
a crusade was ordered against particular sacred 
groves. The pagans held tenaciously to their syl- 
van superstition. Grimm states, that " in the Prin- 
cipality of Minden, on Easter Sunday, the young 



SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 237 

people of both sexes used, with loud cries of joy, to 
dance a rigan or rig around an old oak." Again, he 
says, " In a thicket near the village of Wormeln, 
Panderborn, stands a holy oak, to which the inhabit- 
ants of Wormeln and Calenburg still make a solemn 
procession every year." This recalls to mind our 
English May-pole and its religio-social character. 
And how inevitable the transition of thought to the 
American liberty-pole, and the partisan pole-raisings, 
in which hickory and ash represent, if not religion, 
at least politics and patriotism ! Surely the tree yet 
maintains a wonderful hold on imagination as a much- 
suggesting emblem. 

We call the oak King, but our forefathers named 
it Divinity. Possibly the young oaks that Baron 
von Steuben sent from Saxony to Eden Park, Cin- 
cinnati, may be the progeny of some tough old 
Northern god. Or may not the acorns that produced 
them have been shaken down by some weird wood- 
wife, clad in white garments, sitting in the tree-tops ? 
Such wonderful maidens, old legends say, dwelt in 
the woods, — sometimes were seen of men at an 
uncertain hour, — either amid the thick foliage or 
half-hidden in a hollow tree. The Christian priests 
of the Middle Ages caused images of the Madonna 
to be fixed on trees, that pagan adoration might be 
drawn from the old religion to the new — from Odin 
to Christ. 

The Druids of Britain figured existence by a tree 
— not the ash, but the oak. The very word Druid is 



23S ESSAYS 

said to be derived from the Greek, meaning an oak. 
The Druids worshipped one god, Hesus ; his emblem 
on earth was the oak-tree. The parasite mistletoe, 
growing on the tree, is man, the helpless creature, 
dependent on the bountiful Source. 

The Hindoos held the banyan in veneration. 
They called it the sacred tree, the *' Bohdi tree " — 
we may say the Igdrasil of the Brahmans. When 
Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, underwent the 
blessed transformation by which he attained a per- 
fect virtue — became divine — he sat under a banyan- 
tree. The miraculous event is described in the mag- 
nificent sixth book of Arnold's " Light of Asia." 

In the Persian Bible, '' Zend Avesta," are many 
invocations to Ameretat, god of trees, one of the six 
leading divinities, *' Praise to Thee — Tree, good, 
pure, created by Mazda." 

Ruskin in his greatest book, " Modern Painters," 
thus glorifies the pine-tree : " The tremendous unity 
of the pine absorbs and moulds the life of a race. 
The pine shadows rest upon a nation. The north- 
ern peoples, century after century, lived under one 
or other of the two great powers of the pine and 
the sea, both infinite. They dwelt amidst the forest 
as they wandered on the waves, and saw no end nor 
any other horizon. Still the dark, green trees, or 
the dark, green waters jagged the dawn with their 
fringe or their foam. And whatever elements of 
imagination, or of warrior strength, or of domestic 
justice were brought down by the Norwegian or the 



SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 239 

Goth against the dissoluteness or degradation of the 
South of Europe, were taught them under the green 
roofs and wild penetralia of the pine." 

And Emerson treats the same idea poetically in 
these lines from his " Wood Notes : " — 

" Old as Jove, 
Old as Love, 
Who of me 
Tells the pedigree? 
Only the mountains old, 
Only the waters cold, 
Only moon and star, 
My coevals are. 
Ere the first fowl sung, 
My relenting boughs among, 
Ere Adam wived. 
Ere Adam lived, 
Ere the duck dived, 
Ere the bees hived, 
Ere the lion roared, 
Ere the eagle soared. 
Light and heat, land and sea, 
Spake unto the oldest tree." 

The holy books of all nations symbolize much by 
the tree. The first book of the Hebrew Scripture, 
and the last book of the Christian, employ the tree 
metaphor most impressively. In Genesis we read of 
the "tree of Knowledge" with its fatal fruit, and 
Revelation supplies a contrast, "The tree of Life, 
which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her 
fruit every month ; and the leaves of the trees were 
for the healing of the nations." 

The mythology of Greece and Rome affords a 



240 ESSAYS 

beautiful and most fanciful system of mild belief in 
sylvan divinities. The wood-wives of the German 
forest are kin to the Hamadryads of Southern Europe. 
The Grecian wood-nymphs dwelt in trunks of trees, 
from which they sometimes escaped, as a ghost from 
a body entranced ; but the destruction of the tree 
marked the term of the Dryad's life. The crackle 
and groan of a falling tree is the death-struggle of 
the imprisoned nymph. 

Mythology, ancient and modern, abounds with sto- 
ries of the metamorphose of animate creatures, di- 
vine, human, and brute, into plants. Virgil relates in 
the "^neid" that when the pious Trojan began to 
pluck up a wild myrtle in Thrace, the voice of his 
old friend Polydore cried out from the torn stock, to 
the amazement and grief of JEne^s. 

Dante consigned the souls of suicides to eternal 
bondage in gnarly, infernal trees, on the sentient 
boughs of which the harpies perch. In the thirteenth 
canto of " Inferno," the poet describes his doleful 
personal experience in one of these terrible man-tree 
forests : — 

" Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward, 
And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn ; 
And the trunk cried, ' Why dost thou mangle me.'" 
After it had become embrowned with blood, 
It recommenced its cry, ' Why dost thou rend me ? 
Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever? 
Men once we were, and now we are changed to trees : 
Indeed thy hand should be more pitiful, 
Even if the souls of serpents we had been.' 



SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 24I 

As out of a green branch that is on fire, 
At one of the ends, and from the other drips 
And hisses with the wind that is escaping. 
So from the splinter issue forth together 
Both words and blood." 

Tasso, in ''Jerusalem Delivered," narrating the 
adventures of Tancred in the enchanted wood, de- 
scribes a sorrowful murmuring in the leaves of the 
cypress ; the sound of a half-articulate, lamenting 
voice that filled Tancred 

*' With pity, sadness, grief, compassion, fear." 

Overwrought with awe and indefinite apprehension, 
the hero drew his sword and cut a deep gash in the 
tender rind of the cypress. Drops of blood trickled 
from the wound, a groan escaped, and a voice com- 
plained in accents of tender reproach : — 

"Tancred, thou hast me hurt." 

It was the voice of Clorinda, the lost, loved mistress 
of the unhappy knight. 

Ariosto, in that astounding string of cantos, called 
" Orlando Furioso," also leads a hero, Rogero, into 
enchanted realms of "false Alcina's Empery," where 
the man of arms ties his courser to a myrtle-tree. 
The stud made the myrtle shake, and brought down 
a shower of leaves about his feet. Drops of sweat 
appeared on the bark of the tree. At length the 
myrtle spoke and told a long story, in which it, or he, 
for this tree was of the ruder sex, claimed to be heir 
to the crown of England, debarred his rights by the 



242 ESSAYS 

unfriendly power of magic. This gallant myrtle had 
no mean opinion of his own personal attractions, for 
he said, 

" More dames than one my beauty served to warm." 

All readers are familiar with Shakespeare's Ariel, 
whom the witch Sycorax imprisoned in a " cloven 
pine," from which he was rescued by Prospero, who 
afterwards threatened : — 

" If thou more murmurest, I will rend an oak, 
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till 
Thou hast howled away twelve winters." 

The belief that plants may possess a life, spirit, or 
soul similar to that of man has almost faded out of 
the world. Yet poetry still retains the mythical 
conception in a refined form. Bryant sings: — • 

" Nay, doubt we not that under the rough rind, 
In the green veins of those fair growths of earth. 
There dwells a nature that receives delight 
From all the gentle processes of life, 
And shrinks from loss of being. Dim and faint 
May be the sense of pleasure or of pain, 
As in our dreams ; but, haply, real still." 

Wordsworth, in delicate sympathy with nature, 
trod the woodland with deep reverence, and admon- 
ished thus : — 

" Move along these shades 
In gentleness of heart, with gentle hand 
Touch — for there is a spirit in the woods." 

Tylor, in his ''Primitive Culture," says, "The 
notion of a vegetable soul, common to plants and to 



SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 243 

':h.e higher organisms possessing an animal soul in 
addition, was familiar to mediaeval philosophy, and 
is not yet forgotten by naturalists." May it not be 
added that the facts and speculations of biology and 
evolution not only revive the ancient theory, but 
attempt to extend it ? 

The new philosophy may prove that man is organi- 
cally akin, not only to baboon and bird, but also to 
pine-tree and palm. Protoplasm is marvellously demo- 
cratic. There is no doubt that all matter is alike. 
Resolving nature puts all her kingdoms on familiar 
and equal terms. 

" Imperial Caesar, dead, and turned to clay, 
May stop a rent to keep the wind away." 

Some years ago I visited in Providence the spot 
where Roger Williams is buried. I was told that an 
attempt had been made to exhume his body. A 
small tree was the monument that marked the grave. 
The sexton's spade discovered neither coffin nor 
bones, but instead was found a plexus of roots, so 
massed and shaped as to bear the form of a human 
body. Ten thousand rootlets, with their spongioles, 
had eaten up the dust of Roger Williams, and arranged 
themselves so as to preserve the exact outline of his 
frame. Here was a direct transformation of human 
flesh into wood, bark, and leaves ; maybe, into flowers 
and fruit. 

Considered merely as material changes, the meta- 
morphoses of Ovid are not wonderful ; they are but 



244 ESSAYS 

chemical experiments. One might actually taste the 
blood of Thisbe in a ripe mulberry, or see the pale 
cheek of Narcissus in the flower into which that 
melancholy youth was transubstantiated. 

When we consider how nearly allied in substance 
are nerve and wood fibre, and how interwoven with 
the religion, philosophy, history, and poetry of the 
race the forest is, we may begin to understand why 
trees and their associations so deeply interest a 
thoughtful, and especially an imaginative or senti- 
mental man. We can understand why the poets, 
great and small, delight in celebrating woodland 
scenery, and in idealizing individual trees. From the 
simple lyric, " Woodman, spare that tree," to the 
transcendental " Wood Notes " of Emerson, the wide 
range of sylvan sentiment runs up and down the 
whole gamut of poesy. Volumes could be compiled 
of excellent poetry relating to the woods. Literature 
fosters love for trees, and is, therefore, a most practi- 
cal ally of forestry as a science. The idea of associ- 
ating the memory of authors with the preservation 
and admiration of trees is really an inspired thought. 
Nothing more appropriate can be conceived. 

I do not forget that there must be saw-logs as well 
as sentiment, planks as well as poetry. Forestry is 
a useful art, and common-sense cultivates trees for 
timber. While we honor the spade, we must not 
withhold the praises of the axe. Yet now it is well 
that the axe should rest with the rifle which slew the 
wild beasts and wild men that threatened the pioneer. 



SYLVAN MYTHOLOGY, POETRY, AND SENTIMENT 245 

Hitherto, the very huzza of patriotism and progress 
has been raised for that same sharp axe, ** Be Yankee 
doodle doo and the felling of Western forest remem- 
bered," wrote Carlyle to Emerson. 

It now becomes startlingly apparent that the chop- 
per's strokes have resounded too long in the primeval 
glooms ; that the war on the woods is likely to prove 
a war of extermination. No more is it so great a 
virtue to chop. " A man was famous according as 
he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees." Luckily 
the patient earth will restore the majestic armies 
slain ; recruit troops of trees on hill and plain. To 
this end, we must cultivate a sentiment for planting, 
as our fathers stimulated a passion for clearing. 



246 ESSAYS 



XII 



WILLIAM DOWNS HENKLE — MEMORIAL 
ADDRESS! 

Portia. Is it your friend. . . ? 
Bassanio. The dearest friend to me. . . 

merchant of Venice' 

A FASCINATING interest attaches to inquiries con- 
cerning the origin of the human species ; still more 
intense is the interest when applied to the origin of 
the individual. By what process of evolution, through 
what series of natural selections and conflicts for sur- 
vival, did this or that particular man come to being ? 
What were his hereditary aids or hindrances } Who 
and whence his ancestors ? 

We are our forefathers. The prophecy of intel- 
lectual power is in the fortunately organized brain. 
Good organization is bettered by culture. The per- 
fect work of education can be accomplished only in 
the person well born of a stock rightly educated. 

We are astonished at the rapid growth of a mind 
apparently neglected. A country lad, without schools 
or school-masters, suddenly absorbs the knowledge 
and culture of the age, and gains recognition as the 
flower of the college faculty. 

1 Read at the thirty-third annual meeting of the Ohio Teachers' Association, at 
Niagara Falls, N.Y., July 7, 1883. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 247 

The tree accounts for the branch. In the root and 
the soil which nourishes it, seek for an explanation 
of the flower and the fruit. 

William Downs Henkle was fortunate in his an- 
cestry. Many streams of good blood found conflu- 
ence in him. We shall understand him the better 
by studying his progenitors. 

Tracing his paternal lineage back six generations, 
we reach Rev. Gerhard Henkle, a German theolo- 
gian of, Frankfort, chaplain to a grand-duke. Gerhard 
Henkle espoused Lutheran doctrines, lost credit at 
court, gave up his chaplaincy, and between the years 
1720 and 1730 emigrated to America, for conscience' 
sake and freedom's. He settled first at Germantown, 
Pennsylvania, but later, removed to the county of 
Lancaster, where he became pastor of a Lutheran 
Church. He is said to have founded St. Michaers 
Church in Philadelphia.^ 

Gerhard Henkle's great-grandson, Moses Henkle, 
born in Virginia, and educated in the College of Wil- 
liam and Mary, became a Methodist, and preached 
Methodism in a day when the sect was not popu- 
lar. He married Margaret Montgomery, a descend- 
ant of a distinguished family, and near of kin to the 
poet. Moses and Margaret Henkle had five sons, all 
of whom, following their father's example, became 
preachers of the gospel. One of these five sons, 

1 Rev. Socrates Henkle, D.D., of New Market, Va., possesses a silver spoon 
three hundred years old, that belonged to Gerhard Henkle. It bears the Henkle 
coat-of-arras. 



248 ESSAYS 

Rev. Lemuel Green Henkle, was the father of the 
late Hon. William Downs Henkle. 

The name Downs comes from the maternal line of 
Henkle's ancestry. Mary Downs was the maiden 
name of his mother. She was of Quaker parentage. 
Her mother, Elizabeth Morse, was a direct descend- 
ant of Mary Wright, of whom we have this quaint 
account in authentic Quaker records : " In the year 
1660, Mary Wright, a young maiden of Oyster Bay, 
Long Island, travelled several hundred miles and 
preached openly to John Endicott and his Council, 
in Boston, against the bloody work of executing sev- 
eral of our ministers for no other crime than preach- 
ing the gospel of Jesus Christ ; for which she was 
imprisoned near a year, and then, with twenty-seven 
other Quakers, released from jail and driven into the 
wilderness." 

Henkle, Montgomery, Downs, Morse, Wright — 
good sources are these from which to derive a man 
and compose a character. These names represent 
simplicity of conduct, progressive ideas, sensitive con- 
science, and tenacious adherence to principles. The 
religious element dominates. 

William D. Henkle was born Oct. 8, 1828, at Pleas- 
ant Hill, six miles from Springfield, Clarke County, O. 
His father's possessions were but small ; he owned 
' a humble cottage, besides which his horse, saddle- 
and bridle, comprised about all his worldly wealth, 
for he was an itinerant preacher. Obeying a call to 
Louisville, Ky., Rev. Lemuel Henkle removed to that 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 249 

city with his family, and was there stationed pastor 
of the Methodist Protestant Church. There he died, 
of confluent small-pox, in the year 1835. William 
was at the time a lad of seven. He had three sis- 
ters, one nine, one five, and one three years old. 

After her husband's decease, Mary Downs Henkle 
returned to her father's home at Urbana, O., where 
she resided for two years, and then she removed 
to her own cottage in Springfield. While living at 
his grandfather's, in Urbana, William, or "little Bill 
Downs," as he was familiarly styled, manifested that 
disposition to inquiry which distinguished him in 
manhood. His father had taught him to read, and he 
conceived a love of books. The first school he at- 
tended was at the old Urbana Academy, in which he 
afterwards tried his "prentice hand" as a teacher. 

William's aptitude for numbers, and his persever- 
ing habit, were shown while he was a very small boy. 
Failing one evening to get the right answer to a ques- 
tion in arithmetic, he went to bed dissatisfied. In the 
night he was heard, calling out to his sister, " I have 
the answer ! I worked it out in my sleep ! " His mem- 
ory was excellent, and often when at the old Downs 
homestead, the family assembled in the large, cheerful 
room, made bright by the roaring fire in the wide fire- 
place, he entertained the company by reciting " On 
Linden when the sun was low." It is no surprise to 
learn that the future editor of Notes and Queries was 
fond of working out puzzles. He was very quick- 
minded, and made ready application of what he 



250 ESSAYS 

learned. His sister relates that " nothing delighted 
him so much as getting a company of children to- 
gether and making a speech to them, generally on 
temperance." From this we learn that the institute 
lecturer began practice very early, and on a very im- 
portant subject, to a very impressible audience. 
When the widow and her son and daughters began 
their independent struggle for subsistence, in Spring- 
field, it was well for them that they were bound to- 
gether closely in the bands of family love. Toil was 
their portion. They were acquainted with privation. 
The mother's needle helped to earn the children's 
bread. Adjoining their place there was a brick-yard, 
and some of the hands who worked at the kilns were 
boarded at the widow's house. The owner of the 
brick-yard hired William to drive a cart, paying him 
a trifle for his service. To what use do you think the 
black-haired, rosy boy put the first wages he received ? 
He bought a bonnet for his mother. 

His mother! The gentle Quakeress who had 
given her hand to the earnest Methodist preacher, 
— the mild, thoughtful, intrepid descendant of Mary 
Wright ! From her William inherited his sweet- 
est and his strongest qualities. From her he de- 
rived his quiet way and his even temper. Her brain 
transmitted to his the mathematical aptitude. Mary 
Downs was potentially the author of the Algebra 
which her son actually produced. " She could do 
head-work more accurately than any other woman 
I ever saw," writes one who knew her. Her daugh- 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 2$! 

ter, Mrs. Spain, says, " Mother, when she was left a 
young widow with four children, resolved to devote 
her life to educating them ; she managed, by untiring 
industry, to eke out the slender means left her in 
such a way that we were kept constantly together. 
. . . Losing our father as we did, we gave a double 
share of love to our mother ; and having only one 
brother, he was the idol of the family. I am sure no 
happier family ever lived. Mother was always the 
centre, ready to take an interest in all our lessons or 
games ; but Will was the life of the circle, ever will- 
ing to amuse and to instruct." The tribute which 
Mrs. Spain pays to her brother has deep significance, 
for relations peculiarly touching existed between her 
and him. They were playmates from infancy, and 
were tenderly attached to each other always. When 
Ella was a child of four she one day fell into a mill- 
race, and was rescued from drowning by Will, who 
plunged into the water and saved her. He was her 
only teacher. When he expired, this devoted sister 
was at his side, and, with his wife and daughter, 
caught the last whispered "farewell " from his dying 
lips. 

Mr. J. M. Milhollin, a second cousin of Mr. Henkle, 
gives interesting recollections of his kinsman's boy- 
hood and youth. He says, '' When we used to gather 
about the streets of Springfield, Will was never a 
ringleader. His favorite attitude was to stand, lean- 
ing against a wall or other object, with his hands 
behind him. He generally inclined his head a little, 



252 ESSAYS 

and always smiled when addressed, or when he him- 
self spoke. His own share of the talk was small, and 
was composed of questions, answers, and vcrj' short 
sentences. Often he saw a point where others did 
not. Then he would be very apt to mention some- 
thing about it to the boy next to him, but not to the 
whole crowd." 

To those who have watched the growth of Mr. 
Henkle's library, and who know how his very heart- 
strings were twined round his precious books, the 
story of his first collection is very affecting. The 
slender boy that drove a cart, hauling clay in the brick- 
yard, spent part of his scanty purse in buying books. 
His bookcase was a candle-box with a sliding lid. 
Happy boy ! symbolic box ! the candles have shed 
thsir glimmering light and are gone out ; but the 
books, — inextinguishable torches, — shall shine on, 
to illuminate heart and mind. 

Young Henkle went to school in Springfield, first 
to Mrs. Bassett, then to a teacher named Adams, 
and for a short time to his uncle, Alfred Reed. 
The effect of the school routine upon him was not 
stimulating. He appears to have conceived a dis- 
gust, not for learning, but for the teaching he re- 
ceived. Possibly he felt a dim consciousness that 
school was retarding his progress rather than pro- 
moting it. Such feelin-gs do possess the unquiet 
mind of youth at the period when conscious acquisi- 
tion begins. There comes a time when the pupil 
gets outside of himself, looks at himself, and sees 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 253 

the necessity of conducting his own education, using 
books and teachers as essential means, but not as 
wholly responsible for his education, or as substi- 
tutes for his own industry and will. We are told 
that the docile, ingenuous boy passed into a state of 
obstinacy. He is dissatisfied with the aridity and 
the narrowness of the school. Surely there are bet- 
ter modes than this, he grumbles. Better nothing 
than this dull round. 

He roves the streets, and rambles away to the hills 
and woods of the wide country. But it is not list- 
less wandering. It is not indolent dreaming. The 
boy is in quest of the living fountains. He longs to 
know ; to seize fast hold of realities. His restless- 
ness is owing to that pang which Plato describes as 
the constrained effort of the soul's wins^s strivino; to 
expand and bear the man up and away. 

Now the book-store, like a strong magnet, draws 
him to its loaded shelves. The candle-box is no 
longer large enough to hold the volumes that come 
to Widow Henkle's cottage, and Will has a black 
walnut box made and placed on the top of the bureau, 
for books. As one awakened to a conviction of sin 
feels that all his past virtues count for nothing, so 
the boy, aroused to a sense of ignorance, begins hum- 
bly to study and learn. His quick ear has caught 
scraps of conversation between thoughtful men, and 
he finds out who are the intellectual lights of the 
town. He hears of this doctor, and that lawyer, and 
yonder professor, who possess treasures of special 



254 ESSAYS 

knowledge. The strong desire to become a scholar 
warms his being. He is ready now for teachers and 
schools. Do we not know that the work is all but 
done ? Henkle is born into the kingdom of the 
intellectually saved ! 

When we are ready for them, our teachers come. 
How, like a good genius in a fairy tale, came the 
young high school student, T. D. Crow, to William 
Henkle. ''I noticed the lad," says Mr. Crow, "sit- 
ting in his mother's kitchen, intently poring over 
such old books or newspapers as he could lay his 
hands upon, and, indeed, seeming to care for naught 
else. So I said to him one day, ' William, if you 
will come to my room once each day, I will hear you 
recite in anything you want to study.' . . . Next 
evening he entered my room with three books under 
his arm, viz.. Smith's English Grammar, Talbot's 
Arithmetic, and Comstock's Natural Philosophy." 
This fairy tale had its just, poetic sequel when, after 
long years, Mr. Henkle made Mr. Crow acting com- 
missioner of common schools, at the State capital. 

Grammar, arithmetic, philosophy, — these only pro- 
voked the desire for other branches. The passion 
for learning increased by what it fed on. Young 
Henkle sought the acquaintance of Mr. White, a 
scholarly gentleman then teaching in Springfield, 
who afterwards became a supreme judge. Mr. 
White led his eager student into the mysteries of 
algebra and the charms of Latin grammar. Ambi- 
tion now pointed to the Springfield High School as 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 255 

the next goal. Chandler Robbins, afterwards pro- 
fessor of languages in Augusta College, Kentucky, 
was principal of the high school when Henkle at- 
tended it. The continuity of Henkle's high school 
course was interrupted by his teaching his first 
school in the winter of 1845-46. He was about six- 
teen years old. He boarded with his mother, ate 
breakfast early, walked four miles to school, came 
home to supper, and then went one mile to a night 
school to recite German and French, — ten miles' 
walking a day, besides the labor of teaching a coun- 
try school and learning lessons in two foreign lan- 
guages ! 

His teaching term ended, Henkle returned to the 
high school, from which he was graduated August 
7, 1846. At graduation the rising scholar delivered 
a Latin salutatory. A proud occasion was that for 
the Henkle family. Mother and sisters attended the 
exercises, which were given in the Methodist Church. 
" How happy we all were ! " reports Mrs. Spain. *' I 
knew Will's salutatory as well as he did himself, and 
could have prompted him had there been need of it." 

From the high school Will went to Wittenberg 
College, but he did not finish the college course. In 
the catalogue for 1847 ^is name stands highest among 
the classical students. He always cherished grateful 
recollections of Wittenberg and of his instructors 
there. '' But what, in faith, make you from Witten- 
berg?" an intimate friend used to ask him playfully, 
quoting Hamlet ; to which he would quickly reply, 
"A truant disposition, good my lord." 



256 ESSAYS 

Late in 1847 he taught a private school at Urbana, 
and not long afterwards he was chosen principal of 
the academy. His mother sold her house in Spring- 
field and followed him to Urbana. 

One obtains a curious impression from reading 
formal recommendations given to eminent men before 
they became eminent. Mr. Henkle's old teacher, 
Chandler Robbins, in a document dated September, 
1847, "takes pleasure in stating that Mr. William 
Henkle was formerly a pupil of his," and "believes 
him to be well qualified to teach youth in literature 
and science as far as to prepare them to enter the 
freshman class in college," and, finally, ''cordially 
recommends him to the community as a young man 
every way worthy of confidence." 

While at Urbana, Henkle one day came into 
Doctor Howell's office and discovered the doctor's 
brother with a large work on anatomy in his hands. 
*' I am trying to learn the names of five hundred 
muscles and two hundred and fifty bones." — ''Give 
me a dozen of them," said Henkle ; " I'll remember 
them for you." His avidity for all knowledges led 
him to undertake the study of medicine, in which 
he made considerable progress. Dr. Howell was 
astonished at the extent of the young school- 
master's information, and said with emphasis, ''He 
is tJioroiigJi.''^ 

The Henkle family connections in Clarke County 
were numerous ; and it was a custom for all the kith 
and kin to assemble at stated times, and to hold what 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 25/ 

Will called a " Henkle Jubilee." A memorable 
gathering of this kind took place while William was 
teaching in Urbana. He hired a substitute on the 
day of jubilee, for on no account could the family 
festival go on without him. He was the inspiration 
and joy of the company. It was long remembered 
by those present that Will made a wonderful, comic 
speech, from a swinging perch in the branches of a 
big white-oak tree that had just been cut down. 
Certain teasing girl cousins made fun of the orator's 
newly sprouted whiskers, and he retorted by smooth- 
ing a large imaginary beard, and exclaiming, " My 
whiskers ! oh, my whiskers ! " The day was drowned 
in laughter. 

One day an excursion was made, up the midde 
branch of Buck Creek, by a dozen young people, in 
a two-horse farm-wagon. Will Henkle was the soul 
of the party. ''What we lacked of having sport that 
day it would be hard to supply," reports the cousin 
who drove the horses. A shower came up. William 
borrowed of a farmer an enormous overcoat, nut- 
brown, old-fashioned, short in the waist and long in 
the skirts, with tail split almost up to the shoulder- 
blades. In this coat did the future doctor of phi- 
losophy masquerade, to the infinite amusement of the 
others. He started a spelling-school in the wagon, 
and gave out such words as sJioo, the exclamation 
used to drive away chickens. Arriving at his uncle's 
house he played beggar, imploring his aunt to 

" Pity the sorrows of a poor old man." 



258 ESSAYS 

Then there was strolling over the hills, and sing- 
ing "Uncle Ned" and "Old Virginny," and recita- 
tions, the whole concluding with a pathetic selection 
by Will about an Alpine vulture carrying away a 
child, ending with the lines, — 

" The scarlet cap it wore that morn 
Was still upon its head." 

Such were the cheerful, innocent, social recrea- 
tions of William D. Henkle at the age of twenty. 

He now puts on the toga of manhood, and with 
true Roman valor begins the campaign of mature 
life. In 1848 he made his first appearance as insti- 
tute instructor, giving a series of lectures on English 
grammar. When the union system went into effect 
he was employed as principal of the Urbana High 
School. 

In 1850 he went to Greenfield, O., and for one 
term taught in the seminary there. From Green- 
field he went to Mechanicsburg, whither his mother's 
family also removed. He taught in a seminary, in 
which he was associated with a superior scholar, 
Mr. Robert Wilson, a graduate of Queen's College, 
Belfast, Ireland. Prof. T. C. Mendenhall tells us 
that "it is highly probable that Mr. Henkle there 
learned, for the first time, through his association 
with Mr. Wilson, the great value of accurate, thor- 
ough, and exhaustive scholarship, a lesson which he 
himself, in after-life, unconsciously taught all who 
were so fortunate as to sustain intimate relations 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 259 

with him." While at Mechanicsburg, Henkle gave 
much of his mental energy to mathematical work. In 
a letter to one of his mathematical correspondents, 
Miss Fitch, now Mrs. A. F. Rabb, dated March 12, 
1852, he says, "We have here a glorious mathemati- 
cal trio, composed of Mr. Stribbling, an engineer; 
my partner, Mr. Wilson ; and your friend, W. D. 
Henkle. Our attention is devoted almost entirely 
to geometry. Neither of them is an amateur in 
algebra. Geometry is their forte. Hence, whenever 
I receive an algebraic problem for solution, I don't 
hand it over to them, but keep it all to myself. . . . 
We go in for mathematics here among the ladies. I 
took a class of girls through the Calculus." 

His devotion to mathematics did not prevent 
him from investigating other special subjects. In 
December, 1853, he attended the second annual 
meeting of the Ohio Phonetic Association at Colum- 
bus, and read an able report on Phonetic Teaching. 
At the third annual meeting of the same body, held 
in Cincinnati, in 1854, he also took a leading part, 
presenting a curious and elaborate paper on The 
Bearings of Phonetics on Etymology. The paper was 
published with the proceedings of the Association. 

While living at Mechanicsburg, Mr. Henkle was 
married to Miss Kate A. Estabrook of Dayton, O., 
Oct. 13, 1851. 

In the summer of 1854 Mr. Henkle and family 
removed from Mechanicsburg to Green Mount, near 
Richmond, Ind., where a college had been organ- 



26o ESSAYS 

ized, in which he occupied the chair of ancient lan- 
guages. 

One of Mr. Henkle's pupils at Green Mount was 
Wm. Henry Smith, afterwards secretary of state in 
Ohio, and now manager of the Associate Press. Mr. 
Smith prepared a sketch of Mr. Henkle's life for the 
Type of tJic Times. 

In a letter to his correspondent. Miss Fitch, 
dated Oct. 15, 1854, Mr. Henkle speaks of visiting 
Cleveland to attend the Ohio State Association, and 
of going to Urban a, Mechanicsburg, Dayton, Oxford, 
and Eaton. " I taught algebra at the Eaton Normal 
School about two weeks, after which I conducted a 
Teachers' Institute at Richmond. Professor Stod- 
dard and Dr. Cutter were with us the first week. 
It was the best institute I ever attended. Our 
school began on the 3d of September, since which 
time I have read about seven works, delivered three 
scientific lectures, attended to school duties, and 
written quite a number of pages of algebra, in series 
and indeterminate analysis. I suppose you know 
that Stoddard and myself intend to publish a Uni- 
versity Algebra. . . . Perhaps you would like to 
know what works I have been reading. I will tell 
you. Trench, Tuckerman, ' Characteristics of Litera- 
ture,' two vols., ' Plurality of Worlds,' ' More Worlds 
than One,' and Chapin's Grammar." 

The institute at Richmond alluded to in this let- 
ter was really the first session of the Wayne County 
Teachers' Association. Mr. Hiram Hadley says, " The 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 261 

Wayne County Association, through the impetus 
which Henkle more than all others imparted to it, 
held its meetings uninterruptedly for more than ten 
years, and set in motion educational forces that have 
contributed largely, not only to the enviable rank 
which Wayne County ^olds, but to the educational 
progress of the whole State." 

Mr. Henkle aided in the organization and main- 
tenance of the Indiana State Teachers' Association, 
of which he was a charter member. He was called 
from Green Mount to Richmond, in which city 
he organized the Union schools and became their 
superintendent. The Supreme Court of Indiana, 
through its representative, Judge Perkins, crippled 
or killed the public schools by the decision, that local 
taxes levied for school purposes are unconstitu- 
tional. His schools broken up at Richmond, Mr. 
Henkle went to Indianapolis, and started a private 
academy. 

In 1856 the first number of the Indiana School 
Joimial was issued, with Geo. B. Stone as editor-in- 
chief, and W. D. Henkle one of the associates. 
Stone left the State in 1858, and Mr. Henkle became 
the editor. But the educational field in Indiana was 
blighted by the Perkins decision. Mr. Henkle said, 
with dry wit, *' I examined the Constitution of 
Indiana with extra care, to see if I could not find 
some way of getting rid of Judge Perkins's decision. 
I could not, until I found that emigration from the 
State should not be prohibited. I got rid of the 
decision by coming to Ohio." 



262 ESSAYS 

The autumn of 1859 foi-i^""^^ Mr. Henkle. teaching 
mathematics in the South-Western Normal School, 
at Lebanon, O. The " University Algebra " had just 
been issued. It was the privilege of his classes to 
use that exacting text-book, and the author was the 
teacher. The class assembled in the basement room 
of the old academy building, and with enthusiasm 
teacher and learners went through the book, though 
not many of the learners could have made much head- 
way without the guidance of the master. Guidance 
it was, and that merely, for Henkle did not carry his 
pupils. He marched ahead, showing the way, blaz- 
ing now and then a tree in the wilderness of diffi- 
culty, but never removing the knotty logs or the 
thorny underbrush. If at times the students lost 
sight of the path, they felt no misgivings in regard 
to their leader's knowledge ; there was no losing him, 
however labyrinth ian the way. 

Mr. Henkle was perhaps at his best in Lebanon. 
He was past thirty years of age, and in full physical 
vigor. He surprised the students on the play-ground, 
by his gymnastic skill, especially by his jumping and 
quoit-pitching. 

To the pupil who wished to learn he opened the 
full storehouse of his mind ; but he was not distin- 
guished for inspiring the sluggish, or sharpening the 
dull. While patient and impartial in his class work, 
he held the esoteric opinion that not all who had 
the calling of students were elected to scholarship. 
And, like Confucius, he thought it waste of time to 
" carve rotten wood." 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 263 

His chosen disciples worshipped him. A true 
philomath, he stimulated investigation and promoted 
acquisition. Not only the professors and pupils in 
the Normal School recognized him as an authority ; 
he was sought by the best intelligence of Lebanon 
and of Warren County. He revived the Mechanics' 
Institute, an organization that had been famous in the 
days of Thomas Corwin's boyhood. He influenced the 
press, the bar, the pulpit of Lebanon. Not the less 
he reached the very rabble of the street ; for, like a 
new Socrates, he went about in such a simple, honest, 
candid way, that he won the confidence and esteem 
of all. 

In the Normal School the " Test Speller " was 
evolved. The curious lists that are printed in that 
odd book were pronounced to the students of the 
Normal School long before Mr. Henkle had an idea 
of publishing them for general use. 

W. D. Henkle was a great reader. Not con- 
tent with grasping the general scope and signifi- 
cance of a volume, his penetration extended to the 
subtlest thought of the author, while he took note 
also of every verbal peculiarity, and of such mechan- 
ical items as most concern the accurate proof-reader. 
The pages of his books are marked with many sym- 
bols, significant to him. On his back would this 
omnivorous reader lie, stretched out upon a lounge, 
with his book held above his face, with a pencil by 
his side, and a paper-knife in his hand, and there 
would he read, and read, and read. He luxuriated 



264 ESSAYS 

in the Qicarterly Reviews, all of which he took. Any 
book or magazine was delightful to him. The idea 
of dry or tedious literature he could not conceive. 
He bought the eighth edition of the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica, and this vast work he actually read, in 
regular course, omitting only the minor articles. 

Dr. Mendenhall, as he has told us gracefully, was 
attracted to Lebanon by the fascinations of Henkle's 
tough algebra, and the fame of its modest author. 
E. O. Vaile, nephew to Mr. Henkle, and now editor 
of Intelligence, was for a time a member of the house- 
hold at Lebanon. 

In 1862 the Republicans nominated Mr. Henkle 
for State commissioner of schools, but at the elec- 
tion he was defeated with the whole State ticket. 
After the campaign he became superintendent of 
the public schools at Lebanon. 

In 1864 he received and accepted an invitation to 
go to Salem, Columbiana County, as superintendent 
of schools there. He held this position until 1869, 
when, on the resignation of John A. Norris as State 
commissioner of schools, Gov. R. B. Hayes appointed 
Mr. Henkle to fill the vacancy for the remainder of 
the term. From Columbus he returned to Salem, 
resuming the duties of superintendent of schools. 
About this time he began the publication of the se- 
rial Notes and Queries. In 1875 (September), when 
Dr. E. E. White disposed of the Ohio Educational 
Monthly in order to accept the presidency of Purdue 
University, Mr. Henkle purchased the periodical. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



265 



and from that time mitil his death he was its 

editor. 

In 1868 Mr. Henkle was president of the Ohio 
State Teachers' Association. He was a prominent 
member of the National Educational Association, of 
which he was the secretary for six years. In June, 
1876, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy was con- 
ferred on him by Wooster University. 

Full of honors, but not of years, he died, aged 
only fifty-three, at his home in Salem, Nov. 22, 1881. 

At the beginning of his last illness, his wife dis- 
covered him lying upon the lounge in the library, 
and on the floor lay a book which he had just been 
reading, and which had fallen from his tired hand. 

The telegraph's tongue of fire told the sudden 
news: ''Henkle is dead!" Ohio's teachers bowed 
and wept. We had not thought of him as mortal. 

•' Oh, what hadst thou to do with cruel Death, 
Who wast so full of life, or Death with thee, 
That thou shouldst die before thou hadst grown old ? " 

Few had thought to praise him in his lifetime, 
so unobtrusive was his serene wisdom, so unassum- 
ing his philosophic repose. As soon would one think 
of praising the wholesome air or the starry sky ! 
But, gone, he was missed. '^ There is but one Hen- 
kle." 

Not only from his personal friends and fellow- 
workers in Ohio came the echo of sorrow and the 
tribute of admiration. Wm. T. Harris sent his 
lament from Concord, Mass., saying, "I am one of a 



266 ESSAYS 

very, very large brotherhood of educators, living all 
over this nation, that are unspeakably shocked and 
pained to hear of Dr. Henkle's illness and death. 
He was universally beloved and respected." From 
Worcester the veteran A. P. Marble wrote, ''Every 
word of eulogy meets a response in my heart ; but 
they all fail to do justice to the noble man that he 
was." Mr. Bicknell, from his desk in Boston, said, 
"We shall long remember his noble life and valuable 
services for education, and his place none can fill 
with equal ability and fidelity." And from Penn- 
sylvania, Mr. Wickersham sadly voiced a general 
thought, "The National Association will miss him 
greatly — no other member would have been missed 
so much." 

William Downs Henkle, not seeking, won his high 
rank by doing a true man's honest work. In a world 
where sham often seems to be preferred to reality, 
it is comforting to note a marked instance in which 
merits such as his are recognized and honored. Not 
for his education, or for his ability, or for his public 
services, was he loved chiefly, but for his humanity. 

The range of Mr. Henkle's studies was wide, and 
in nothing was he superficial. As a mathematician, 
he was regarded by mathematicians as first-rate. As 
a linguist he was proficient, being able to speak in five 
languages and to read in nine. So extensive were 
his researches in philology and lexicography, that in 
these and kindred studies he was regarded as an 
authority, even among specialists. He gleaned from 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 26/ 

his reading many words not found in the great Amer- 
ican dictionaries until he added them. He estab- 
lished the pronunciation of many words, especially 
proper names. Professor Marsh of Lafayette College 
wrote to him, " I do not believe that I have ex- 
pressed to you my pleasure at the introduction of 
so much good spelling, and so good rules for it, into 
the last volume of the American Educational Asso- 
ciation. We are much indebted to you for that, as 
for so many other things." 

The minute investigation he made in several de- 
partments of study, particularly in grammar, enlarged 
the boundaries of exact knowledge, and gave impulse 
to right methods of research among teachers. He 
did not concede that there is any such thing as use- 
less knowledge. In his " Educational Notes and 
Queries " he did what perhaps no other man in the 
United States was capable of doing. His insatiate 
desire to ferret out final facts made the man sni gen- 
eris. At one time he became interested in ascer- 
taining the exact pronunciation of the names of fixed 
stars. Exhausting his own sources of knowledge, he 
wrote to William S. Wheeler, the editor of Webster's 
Dictionary, but Wheeler's vast resources could not 
supply the desired information. Henkle wrote next 
to W. D. Whitney, who replied that the subject 
*' floats in an insoluble uncertainty." That was the 
very reason why Henkle desired to clear the matter 
up. His mind could not rest until he could put the 
proper diacritical mark upon the name of every star. 



268 ESSAYS 

His curious interest in facts remotely connected 
with common activity did not prevent him from at- 
tending to affairs familiar and practical. While he 
sought the names of the stars in boundless space, 
he also knew how butter is made, and what variety 
of potatoes is best. 

While living in Salem he put his astronomical 
knowledge to practical account. He announced in 
the town newspaper, " I have established a true me- 
ridian on Lundy Street, by observation on the north 
star, making a correction for azimuth." The school 
clock at Salem kept true time, and it was suggested 
that the mayor order the town bell to be rung on 
true time. Thus would Henkle adjust himself and 
the community to that order which is the first law of 
the material heaven. Let us be rigJit by the north 
star. 

Scrupulous accuracy attended him in his travel, 
his business affairs, and in all his habits. His wife 
says, ''Whenever he left home he always told me on 
what train he would be at home. Even if he were 
gone for a week or ten days at a time, he would tell. 
He knew the railroad lines and connections so well, 
that when he went to Atlanta last summer he told me 
when he would be at home, and he came as he told 
me." He was extremely punctual and exact in all 
money matters. He kept himself and wife supplied 
with clean, new fractional currency, to discharge 
every score to the cent, and on the second. The 
north star of undeviating honesty controlled his 
transactions. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 269 

His painstaking precision was visible in all his 
private affairs. Mrs. Henkle says, speaking of the 
condition in which he left his papers, etc., "If he had 
arranged his business with a view of leaving it, he 
could not have done it better." 

As an educator Mr. Henkle was practical as to 
what he advocated and what he did. While State 
commissioner he said in a speech, " Not much legis- 
lation is needed. If we were granted three things, 
we would not ask for anything more for fifty years. 
First, county supervision. Second, abolition of the 
sub-districts. Third, a State normal school." 

In an address at Sandusky he advised the teachers 
never to abandon any feature of instruction simply 
because it was old. They must remember that it is 
always new to pupils. Determine what is proper to 
infuse in your schools and then keep it. In the 
same address he said, " No teacher should be em- 
ployed on account of sympathy." Mrs. Henkle gives 
the incident which perhaps fixed this principle in his 
mind. She says, ''I remember at one time when he 
was county examiner in Warren County, a young 
lady was trying to pass the examination. He was 
doing all he could to give her time, etc., and she, of 
course, was in tears. I ventured some remark in her 
behalf. I shall never forget his reply, nor the man- 
ner in which it was given, I do not think that I 
ever knew him to speak with so much force or feel- 
ing. " Don't say a word ; I see the little children all 
over the land holding up their hands to me and say- 
ing, 'Don't send us such teachers.'" 



2/0 ESSAYS 

In his inaugural address, before the State Asso- 
ciation at Dayton, in 1868, Mr. Henkle expressed 
tersely what may be regarded as the fundamental 
philosophy of his educational belief. ''I confess," 
he says, '' I have no great admiration for the word 
discipline when its primitive meaning is banished to 
give place to another. Discipline and disciple both 
have their root in the Latin discere, to learn, and 
hence, primitively, discipline is learning. I firmly 
believe that if the ordinary idea of discipline were 
traced critically to its source, it would be found to 
be knowledge — a knowledge of methods, modes of 
thought, etc., as contra-distinguished from the sim- 
ple knowledge of facts without their relations. My 
opinion as to what we should learn, to be thoroughly 
and liberally educated, may be stated as follows : 
As discipline is a knowledge of methods, our studies 
should be sufficiently extended to embrace all species 
of discipline. This is the ideal towards which we 
should approximate." 

There was a flavor of rather sweet irony in Mr. 
Henkle, and a rich vein of humor. He was the 
laughing philosopher, never the cynic. He distin- 
guished a "joke with a point" from a ''joke with a 
sting," and never enjoyed the latter. His sense of 
the ludicrous found frequent gratification in real life 
and through books. He relished reading ''Tristram 
Shandy" and "Humphrey Clinker." Sometimes he 
amused his friends by giving a burlesque lecture on 
Spencerian Penmanship, illustrating on the black- 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 2^1 

board with hypercritical discriminations the vital im- 
portance of slope, shade, and terminal ciLrlyaie. 
Sometimes he would ridicule the extravagances of 
elocution by declaiming in the prevailing style, but 
with many absurd exaggerations as to intonation, 
facial expression, and gesture. 

Without a touch of affectation, he yet had personal 
eccentricities that often turned the laugh upon him- 
self. Interested in conversation, he forgot to serve 
his guests at his own table. He ate mechanically, 
and, after dinner, sometimes asked his wife whether 
he had eaten or not. One morning he came to 
school with two shirt-collars on, one buttoned out- 
side the other. 

In morals, Mr. Henkle was rigorous with himself 
and exacting of others. It angered him to see men 
debase themselves. He indulged no vice, large or 
small. Temperate, chaste, pure in speech, he resem- 
bled the Zarathustra of the Persian Bible. 

In politics and religion he was conservative. His 
habit of uttering paradoxes, of setting half-forgotten 
truths in a strong light ; his love of the curious ; the 
wide range of his information, which took in all ages, 
nations, and creeds ; his critical faculty, which deemed 
nothing too high for its exercise, led many to set 
him down as much more radical than he really was. 
Conservative himself, and holding convictions firmly 
settled, he yet encouraged controversy on all sub- 
jects. Nothing of the bigot, nothing of the dogma- 
tist in him ; he was open to conviction at all times. 



2/2 ESSAYS 

He had special pleasure in discussion, not debate, 
with clergymen of different denominations. He 
was a member of the Methodist Protestant Church. 
Well acquainted with the arguments of materialism, 
he did not consider them conclusive. Believing in 
evolution, he did not reject the First Cause. He 
revered the holy Bible, and had faith in the efficacy 
of prayer. All his religious views and observances 
partook of the informal simplicity of his mother's 
Quaker creed. 

Socially, Mr. Henkle was delightful. Wherever 
he went there was good society. Never to be for- 
gotten are certain golden days and ambrosial nights 
spent at the hospitable home of Hon. J. P. Siddall 
of Richmond, Ind., when Henkle, Dr. John Hancock, 
good old Dr. Hoshour, A. P. Russell, the genial au- 
thor of '' Library Notes," and other gentlemen, with 
a bevy of bright women, made life seem not only 
worth the living, but made an hour seem worth a 
lifetime. And without Henkle these rare symposia 
could not have been. In Lebanon and Salem it was 
the same. This self-made scholar, this serene gentle- 
man, wherever he went created friends and made 
them happy. His was a home-staying heart. His so- 
journ at Columbus, away from his family, was a cross 
to him. Kate and Clara, his wife and daughter, were 
his angels, — home his earthly paradise. He writes to 
Clara from the office of state commissioner, Colum- 
bus, Nov. 30, 18^9, at four minutes after five, Tues- 
day : — 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS 2/3 

Dear Daughter Clara, — When I began to write to mamma, I 
had just come from a large children's meeting. It rained when I went, 
and was raining when I came back. There were present a great many 
children, come through the storm. Mr. Chidlaw, of Cincinnati, talked 
first, and then Mr. Moody, of Chicago, the latter a great man for hold- 
ing children's meeting. Mamma will tell you what the latter means. 
The children voted to have another meeting to-morrow or next day. I 
have not seen Cousin Ed yet. He was at the lecture last night, but 
I did not see him. Mr. Mendenhall and Brown were here and went 
with me to the children's meeting. 

Last Sunday I saw a little girl on the street dressed in a scarlet 
plaid like yours, with high blue shoes, and a blue hat with a white 
feather. A man was with her. Do you think that man washer papa? 
I do. I hope you are getting to be a better and better girl every day. 
I will see how far you have read when I get home. Remember, you 
we're to be where it says, " I saw a house and a mill," or something 
like that. I must close. It is half-past five and I must soon go to 
supper. From your papa. 

Good evening. 

Alas ! good evening, thou kindest of men ! 

His humanity extended to dumb animals. The 
family horse always showed a preference for him, and 
the household cat had her favorite resort near his 
chair in the library. After his death the cat con- 
tinued for a week to visit his room and to lie in her 
customary place, but, finding at last that her master 
did not return, she came no more to the empty chair. 

My task is nearly accomplished. Once more asso- 
ciation draws us to the library. The library ! In it 
he lived ; from it his dead body was carried to the 
grave. His life was consecrated to books. Let us 
name him Henkle, the Reader. Would you see the 
sacred room ? the place of study ? the penetralia of 



274 ESSAYS 

his intellectual life? You are his friends, and it will 
surely not profane my trust if I read to you his wife's 
touching words : — 

" I am sitting just where he used to sit, in his library, at his table. 
Every available space in this large room is filled to the ceiling with 
cases full of books. Just as soon as Mr. Henklewas dressed he was 
right here at work. Never idle one moment. His last entry in his 
written catalogue of books is, Peck's Ganot's Natural Phil. Revised, 
Num. 4426. His books, as you know, were accumulated one at a time. 
Sometimes he would see advertised a book that he wanted, and would 
order it, and after long waiting it came. It was always the contents 
he wanted ; he cared nothing for the binding. ... I wish I knew just 
what to tell you. I wish I could tell you what a pleasant home he 
made. He was always pleasant. Every day it seemed to me he grew 
dearer and dearer, — we lived so together — w'orked together. I cared 
so little for anything so he was at home with me. . . . Always the 
same busy, quiet man, but so bright and happy ; often has he spoken to 
me in these months of how his love for me grew as the years went by. I 
think you will not think me foolish in telling you these things. . . . 
Yes, it is hard to think of him cold in death, that active, cheerful, 
happy, big-souled man." 

So speaks his wife, out of the fulness of memory 
and love and devotion and bereavement. Her words 
are the appropriate conclusion to this memorial. 






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